A Family Christmas

There's just something about Christmas.  The birth of Jesus is celebrated in churches and homes everywhere.  Watching the plays with children wearing masks of baby sheep, cows and donkeys, hearing them singing "Silent Night" off key while their halos are sliding off their heads, is amusing and heart warming.

I think of all the Christmases that we gathered up piles of gifts and rounded up the kids, packed them all in the car and traveled through the snowy roads to my husband's parents' house, to have dinner with the family.  There were hugs, brothers and sisters talking, cousins running through the house, and Papaw standing over the stove cooking the meal.  There was always a platter of his delicious homemade peanut butter fudge sitting on the table.  Mamaw would be sitting in her recliner, smiling while each of the grandchildren would stop playing long enough to tell her some big story of toys, or games, or practically anything of importance in a child's mind

Then, there was the trip to my sister's house in Tennessee.  As soon as we'd walk in the door, the boys would be off to the bedroom to play video games, or to reek havoc throughout the house.  My sister and I would escape to the kitchen to talk and laugh hysterically at just about everything.  My husband, my brother in law, and the older boys would be reclined in the living room in chairs and all over the floor watching football games.

As I sit here, watching the snow fall outside, I will grieve a little over the people we have loved, but have lost, then I will smile over sweet memories.  And after a few minutes of reminiscing, I will get my mind in gear for the activities that will be happening in my own house.

All my children will come in,  stomping the snow from their feet, toddlers running through the house, screaming, "MIMI" or "POPPY"!!!!  There will be smells of baked cookies, food simmering on the stove, and a faint aroma of pine tree in the room. Our older grandchildren will interject into the adult conversations what they've been doing at school.  They'll tell of things going on with friends and who likes who, and who is dating who.  My  grandson will be quietly looking around at the food, ready to get the party started.  The toddlers will go straight to the toy box and pull toys out by the handfuls, they'll be giving hugs, running in and out of rooms with squeals of excitement.  The girls will all gravitate to the kitchen, while the men (or I should say, boys) will all pile on the sofas for some kind of talk about touchdowns, work, trucks, or guns.

There's nothing like it.  To think, it all began in a stable with a manger and a little baby.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Twas the Night Before Christmas in Our Church House

This is just a little poem I wrote from the original, "Twas the Night Before Christmas" by Clement Clark Moore.  The people in our church are so friendly, funny, and such characters!  I wrote this for our Christmas dinner this year, based on my church family.  If you knew them, you would know
that Emma screams when she's startled.  Sue is in charge of our nursery downstairs and can whip through changing diapers like nobody's business.  Rita is the pastor's wife, Sam is a quiet, humorous man, Tony is about seven feet tall,  and Mrs. Tucker is the sweetest 94 year old lady  you could ever meet.  So, welcome to my church, my church family, and my crazy mind!


Twas the night before Christmas,
the pastor preaching in the church house.
Not a creature was stirring,
until Emma screamed, "THERE'S A MOUSE!!"

The children were all nestled in the nursery with care,
Sue changing diapers, slinging them through the air.
When all of a sudden there was a commotion overhead,
She yelled, "Please be quiet!  You could wake the dead!"

Never before had there been such a clatter,
as Rita jumped the pews yelling, "What's the matter!"
Sarah was trying to escape through the window sash,
as Rebekah fainted to the floor with a booming crash!

The mouse was so tiny, so lively, so quick.
Up and down the pews ran Sam with a stick.
And then, before our eyes, what should appear?
Tony running the aisles yelling, "Let's get outta here!"

The deacons, the trustees, they made such a gang
From his perch on the organ, Preacher called them by name.
"Come Bob, come Tim, come Thomas, come all!
Get me down from here before I fall!"

As the little mouse scurried, as sly as a fox,
Mrs. Tucker captured it in a tiny red box.
She turned and smiled and straightened her shawl,
She raised the box and said, "Merry Christmas to all!"

He Saw Jesus

It's Christmas time once again, and once again we will hear the Christmas story.  No, not about the man in the red suit, but the story of the birth of our Saviour.  We hear about the baby, the shepherds, the wise men, and about Mary, but we don't hear much of Joseph, the stepfather to Jesus.  What a brave man he must have been.  What a Godly man, he showed himself to be.

He was a carpenter.  He was a  man of good standing in the community, who was espoused to a young woman named, Mary.  His name was Joseph. 

As important as it was for God to find just the right woman to be the birth mother for his son, it was just as important that he find the right man to be the stepfather to Jesus.

As was the custom at this time, marriages were arranged, so it could have been that Mary and Joseph knew, as children, that they were to be married whenever they came of age.  They may have played together as children and shyly flirted with each other as preteens.  Their love probably started to develop very early on, knowing that they would spend their lives together as husband and wife.

Joseph knew he would have to provide for his family, so he was trained to be a carpenter.  This was not an easy occupation.  There were no battery powered hand drills, no electric table saws, and no gas fueled chain saws.  It was all done by hand with very primitive tools.  They had to cut, trim, and plane each piece of wood used by hand.  In the times of Joseph, many of the roofs made for the homes were just large timbers laid from wall to wall with mud plastered in the crevices, so a carpenter would have to move and place these by hand. It was not an occupation for the weak.
 
So, as the years progressed, I'm sure Joseph's physique went through some changes and he became a strong, muscular man.  As well, his stature in the community probably increased, as he learned to accomodate people, to work with them, and to be fair in his dealings.  He took pride in his work and in his life.  It seemed everything was looking up.  Good job, good health, nice position in the town, and a sweet girl already under contract to become his wife within a few, short months.  Life was good.

Life was good, until that one, earth shattering day.  That day, when the woman of his dreams, the woman considered to be righteous and Godly, the woman that promised herself to him, came to him with a story of betrayal.  How could she! How could she embarrass him in the town!  How could she have done such a thing!  How could she be with child?

This information plagued him.  It consumed him.  As he worked, the thoughts of betrayal mocked him with each pass of the sanding stone.  As his muscles tired and sweat dripped from his face, each stroke of the hammer said, "Why?  Why?  Why?"

He could make no sense of this story of a baby concieved of God, to be birthed without Mary ever knowing a man, and then for the baby to be the Promised One, the Saviour of the world, the Christ child.

If someone was espoused, it was a binding contract, just as if they were married, so when Mary came to him with this news, he knew that the outcome of such a revelation would be excommunication for Mary, she would be shamed, ridiculed, and possibly stoned for adultery.

Joseph cared for her, in spite of the circumstances, and decided that he would not go to the authorities with this information, but would send her away privately, inconspicuously.  He would see to her safety and he would protect her reputation.  He loved her.

As he tossed and turned, trying to get some rest from all this turmoil, he finally closed his eyes in fitful sleep.  It was during this sleep that God saw his heartache and sent a messenger to Joseph.  The angel comforted him with words of truth. The angel comforted him with affirmation that what Mary had told him was the truth and that it was of God.

Joseph put all fears aside and followed God by faith.  He took Mary as his wife, and when that night of all nights finally came and he looked into the face of his stepson, he saw the face of glory, the giver of grace, the reflection of mercy.

He counted the perfect little fingers and saw the healing of all nations.  He rubbed those pudgy, baby feet and saw they would walk the road to complete sacrifice.  He saw in those tiny eyes, forgiveness
.
He saw Jesus.

Matthew 1:18-25  Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise:  when as his mother, Mary, was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost.
 
Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a publick example, was minded to put her away privily.

But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife:  for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost.

And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS:  for he shall save his people from their sins. Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet saying

 Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.