Christmas Season this Year

We hear of wars in diverse places;

We read of tragedies close by.

 We see the fear on people’s faces;

We sense that evil lingers nigh.

Accidents are all too common;

Disease and illness strike at will. 

This or that may be an omen

That suffering is with us still. 

Life is short and swiftly passes

Since the hour of our first breath;

One day we are lads and lasses –

All too soon we taste of death. 

How our world is slowly dying,

How it groans with pungent pain,

Many desperate voices crying

For the ones who have been slain.

Trials, troubles, sadness, sorrow,

Calamities we do not choose,

Disasters near as just tomorrow:

Such the fare of daily news. 

 

Yet, we may hear if we but listen

To a story very old –

Between the lines it fairly glistens

With greater worth than purest gold –

A story more than just a story,

A happening we can't forget

That still reflects a hidden glory

Touching hurting humans yet. 

If you have heard it, then repeat it;

If you’ve not listened, listen now,

For evil’s strength cannot defeat it,

And it can change your life, somehow.

 

The story started without warning

Midway through a silent night

Where simple men and boys were warming

Frigid hands by campfire light,

When messengers from far-off Glory

Just appeared intent to tell

A most amazing, startling story,

And then they cause the sky to swell

With music men had never heard –

So grandiose and so sublime

They trembled at each vibrant word,

A special message for all time. 

Amidst the hardships life had brought them,

Of all they’d gained, of all they’d lose,

Of all the lessons life had taught them –

Finally, some Great Good News!

A Child was born unlike all others,

A Child who’d turn the tide of wrong,

And save from drowning sisters, brothers –

A Child whose birth they rang in song!

 

I wasn’t there to hear them tell it;

I wasn’t there to see the sight,

Bu darkness - yes, He would dispel it,

Replacing darkness with a Light

Undimmed by all the darkened ages

Humanity has since then known.

Across the war-torn tragic pages

Of history, that Light has shown.

If you and I should wish to see it

And catch a glimmer of that Light,

All we have to do is seek it

Amidst the blackness of our night.

A star to follow we shall find,

A path to walk where peace is found,

A hope and joy to flood the mind,

And in one’s heart a certain sound

That echoes still from way back when

Celestial song, one early morn,

Of “Peace on earth, good will to men”

Announced the Boy-child had been born!