As I write this, my children have been shoe’d up stairs for the umpteenth time. All the presents are wrapped and house is silent, at least for a few hours until one of my sleepy eye’d progeny asks what time is it somewhere around O-Dark-Thirty. Needless to say, the lyrics of Silent Night are a bit ironic these days as nothing is silent in my house. Which I suppose is fitting since that first … Continue reading
Category Archives: Christmas
The Christmas season is upon us in full swing, as it seems to be every year at this time. 😊 And, following recent trends, the public is being offered all sorts of novel ideas, in an attempt to dismiss as mere myth, the historical Jesus and message of the Christian faith. Progressives in the media trot out a cadre of liberal “scholars” who deny the historicity of Scripture and biblical claims as little more than … Continue reading
Have you ever noticed how many people believe in a one-dimensional “cardboard Christ”? We may not think about it in those terms, but it surfaces in various ways. At this time of year, the babe in the manger is certainly the predominant Christ. Everyone likes sweet, cuddly babies with their cute cherub faces. Unfortunately, that is all many acknowledge about Jesus – that He was born in a manger 2,000 years ago – and … Continue reading
For I’ve grown a little leaner, Grown a little colder, Grown a little sadder, Grown a little older, And I need a little angel, Sitting on my shoulder, Need a little Christmas now (“We Need a Little Christmas 1) Here we are in the final days before celebration of the incarnation. Our outside Christmas lights have been on each night at sundown since Thanksgiving evening. Just about every room inside the house has been dressed … Continue reading
“I heard the bells on Christmas Day Their old, familiar carols play, And wild and sweet the words repeat Of peace on earth, good-will to men!” — Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (Christmas Bells) The poem “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day” was composed by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow on December 25, 1864, and turned into a hymn a few years later. The language and imagery are powerful – they do not derive from a comfortable, unchallenged … Continue reading
What’s Christmas time to you but a time for paying bills without money; a time for finding yourself a year older, but not an hour richer; a time for balancing your books and having every item in ’em through a round dozen of months presented dead against you? If I could work my will,” said Scrooge indignantly, “every idiot who goes about with ‘Merry Christmas’ on his lips, should be boiled with his own pudding, … Continue reading