THE OLD DITCH DIGGER

THE OLD DITCH DIGGER

Arr. By Al Ragsdale

Once there was a rich lady, This rich lady had everything she could wish for.

One day she called her chauffeur and said, “I want you to take me for a ride, we are going over in the slum district, and see how the poor old out casts are doing.”  The chauffeur pulled out, and was driving along  an old rough bumpy street, but the rich lady had such a fine limousine she hardly knew there was a rough place.  All at once they drove by a place where they saw an old ragged dirty faced man shoveling away in a muddy ditch.  He was singing a song and it stuck the rich lady with such force she called her chauffeur to stop the car, then the rich lady could hear very faintly the words to the beautiful song the old ditch digger was singing.

Chorus                        I’m a child of the King, the child of the King

With Jesus my savior, I’m a child of the King.

By this time she had gotten out of her car, and was standing near the old ditch digger, Then she said, “What? You a child of a king, Huh, don’t make me laugh, you’re not a child of a King.   You don’t look like a King’s son to me, Why, look at those old ragged trousers and old worn old boots, and those rough chapped hands of yours, you can’t be a child of a King and dress the way you are.” But the old ditch digger kept on singing.

            My Father’s own Son, the Savior of men,

            Once wandered o’er earth as the poorest of men

            But now, He is reigning forever on high

            And will give me a home in the sweet by and by.

The rich lady looked across the ditch and there stood an old rough run-down, unpainted shack where the poor old ditch digger and his family had to live.  No screen doors, cardboard in over half of the windows as the glasses were broken out.  She said, “Listen man, you aren’t a child of a king ,look at that old shack you live in. If you were a child of a king you would live in a palace with a beautiful lawn with the latest fixtures around your yard.  Why you’re just an old ditch digger, digging in that old muddy ditch to earn a living.”  But the old ditch digger kept  singing.

            I once was an outcast, a stranger on earth,  A sinner by choce, an alien by birth.

            But I’ve been adopted, my Name’s written down, An heir to a mansion, a robe and a crown.

The rich lady was so amazed by this time till she didn’t know just what to say, but finally she said, “You say your father is a King, and you live in a shack like that?  Why, it isn’t as good as my pet dog’s house, and if you were a child of a king you would attend the big balls and wine parties we have at the King’s palace.  You couldn’t be a king’s son. Don’t fool yourself.  You’re just an old ditch digger.”  But the old ditch digger kept on singing.

            A tent or a cottage, oh, why should I care? They’re building apalace for me over there,

            Though exiled from home, yet still I can sing. OH, glory to God, I’m a child of a King.

The rich old lady got in the car and the chauffeur drove away, She said, “I don’t see how anyone could claim so much and yet have so little>’  The old ditch digger leaned on his shovel and watched her ride away.  He said, “I don’t see how anyone can claim so much and yet have nothing.

Friends, that rich woman didn’t have Jesus in her heart.