I’m glad to be home tonight, away from the stores and the crowds and the traffic. That’s not Christmas.
I like to think of Christmas as it must have been in the stable: simple, quiet, and probably a little bit scary for Mary and Joseph.
Christmas can be a little scary. It’s scary to think of a new year and all the woe it might bring. It’s scary to think of people alone on this most holy of nights, even if it isn’t holy to them…who wants to sit alone by the fire? Or worse, the television?
Jesus didn’t come so we’d have to be alone. He came to comfort us, and to sit with us, and to remind us that we aren’t by ourselves.
I’m so grateful for His love.
And, I’m grateful for my husband. My son. My parents. Days off of work. The stupid tooth implant that I’ve had to have redone just this morning. I’m determined to see joy and to give joy; to sit in peace and to spread peace; to show my love to everyone.
May you have a very Merry Christmas. May all your days be bright, and the scary bits few.
A lovely message, my friend. Sending wonderful Christmas wishes to you and your family!
LikeLike
Merry Christmas to you, your husband, and Greyson! I imagine much joy around your tree!
LikeLike
I love this post and that painting. Wishing you and your family a very Merry Christmas!!
LikeLike
I wish you a very Merry Christmas, Nadia. Thanks for being my friend these many years; I love talking books (and life) with you.
LikeLike
Merry Christmas wishes to you and yours.
LikeLike
Merry Christmas, Diane! Have a wonderful celebration with your children and grandchildren!
LikeLike
Beautiful post. Merry Christmas to you and yours!
LikeLike
Merry Christmas, JoAnn! I loved the Winter dress that your lake put on for the occasion. 🙂
LikeLike
Well said–the stores and the crowds and the traffic aren’t Christmas. Have a beautiful Christmas, Bellezza!
LikeLike
It’s no wonder people get crabby shopping; they’re looking in all the wrong places for something to satisfy. Merry Christmas, Suko!
LikeLike
Have a wonderful Christmas filled with peace and joy.
LikeLike
Thank you, Mystica, and may you have not only a Christmas with peace and joy but a 2015 as well.
LikeLike
Sweet holidays to you and your kin, and warm greetings from me to you all.
LikeLike
Dear, dear Kevin, thank you for taking the time to comment here and send your love. I’m sending mine to you, too, as always. xo
LikeLike
We are never alone if we have Christ in our hearts! 🙂 Merry Christmas!
LikeLike
I love your comment, Ally! Merry Christmas, and have a blessed New Year! (Fill me in on your romance, if you wish, on private email. Thinking about you!! xoxo)
LikeLike
Thanks for drawing us back to the Reason for the Season. A Merry Christmas to you and yours, Bellezza!
LikeLike
We will shout it from the rooftops, Arti,and even in our whispers, that He is every reason. Much love and Merry Christmas!
LikeLike
A blessèd Christmas, Bellezza, and all good wishes for the New Year.
LikeLike
A blessed Christmas to you, Linda, and thank you for all you contribute to my life.
LikeLike
May you & your family enjoy a wonderful Christmas & may the new year that’s now pawing to be let in, be as bounteous with all that you could wish.
LikeLike
Merry Christmas, dear Gary! I wish many blessings to you and your family, too. xo
LikeLike
A Christmas Carol ~ Samuel Taylor Coleridge
I.
The shepherds went their hasty way,
And found the lowly stable-shed
Where the Virgin-Mother lay:
And now they checked their eager tread,
For to the Babe, that at her bosom clung,
A Mother’s song the Virgin-Mother sung.
II.
They told her how a glorious light,
Streaming from a heavenly throng.
Around them shone, suspending night!
While sweeter than a mother’s song,
Blest Angels heralded the Savior’s birth,
Glory to God on high! and Peace on Earth.
III.
She listened to the tale divine,
And closer still the Babe she pressed:
And while she cried, the Babe is mine!
The milk rushed faster to her breast:
Joy rose within her, like a summer’s morn;
Peace, Peace on Earth! the Prince of Peace is born.
IV.
Thou Mother of the Prince of Peace,
Poor, simple, and of low estate!
That strife should vanish, battle cease,
O why should this thy soul elate?
Sweet Music’s loudest note, the Poet’s story,
Didst thou ne’er love to hear of fame and glory?
V.
And is not War a youthful king,
A stately Hero clad in mail?
Beneath his footsteps laurels spring;
Him Earth’s majestic monarchs hail
Their friends, their playmate! and his bold bright eye
Compels the maiden’s love-confessing sigh.
VI.
Tell this in some more courtly scene,
To maids and youths in robes of state!
I am a woman poor and mean,
And wherefore is my soul elate.
War is a ruffian, all with guilt defiled,
That from the aged father’s tears his child!
VII.
A murderous fiend, by fiends adored,
He kills the sire and starves the son;
The husband kills, and from her board
Steals all his widow’s toil had won;
Plunders God’s world of beauty; rends away
All safety from the night, all comfort from the day.
VIII.
Then wisely is my soul elate,
That strife should vanish, battle cease:
I’m poor and of low estate,
The Mother of the Prince of Peace.
Joy rises in me, like a summer’s morn:
Peace, Peace on Earth! The Prince of Peace is born
LikeLiked by 1 person
Gary, I have no words, and if I did I wouldn’t be able to type them for the tears in my eyes. Thank you, thank you, for always blessing me with your poetry and understanding heart. Really.
LikeLike
Merry Christmas, B! xo
LikeLike
Audrey, the poem on your blog was such a blessing to my spirit! Merry Christmas!
LikeLike
Merry Christmas! I hope you had a wonderful day!
LikeLike
Thank God for online shopping! Is’nt it wonderful tho to have a peaceful home to return to after being outside in that crazy world. I hope your Christmas Season brings you much peace and some of the simple pleasures of family and friends – and knowing you – a good book and a cuppa tea.
LikeLike
I hope you had a lovely Christmas, in spite of your problematic tooth ailments! This should be a relaxing time for you and I’m so sorry you’re having to deal with dental work during your Christmas break. Warm hugs and good thoughts winging your way from rainy Oregon! Happy, happy 2015!
LikeLike
Hope you had a lovely Christmas 🙂
LikeLike
What a beautiful post. I completely agree.
LikeLike