Father and Son, Merry Christmas!

I have been wondering what to write this year and have not come up with the words. So I am borrowing from my son and husband. Yesterday, I realized how my son and husband write alike. James has been gone almost six years and McKenzie does so many things like his father. I just felt these two poems are what I needed and so I am sharing. Jim's Uncle Mel used Jim's poem in his Christmas letter with a beautiful sunrise picutre of where they live, it is so heart warming to see the poem with his picture. As I read McKenzie poem yesterday, I saw the similarity. You may not, but that's ok. I really love these poems and hope you enjoy reading them, it brings the real spirit of Christmas to me.

Happy Hoilday and Merry Christmas to all!

Christmas Gifts 

By McKenzie E. Staples
Once a year
People around the world
Find a reason to give and receive gifts.
While filled with good intentions,
Do they remember
Some of the greatest gifts ever given?
Do they remember the Father
Who allowed His Beloved Son
To leave His Celestial Home
To enter a world
Of pain and sorrow?
Do they remember the Son
Who lived a sinless life
Who suffered for our sake
Who bled from every pore
Who painfully died
That we may live again
With His and Our Father?
As we gather with our family
Do we remember
The price that was paid
So that we may be with them
For Eternity?
As we exchange gifts this year,
Let us not forget
Some of the Greatest Gifts
Ever bestowed upon us.
And remember
Those who lovingly gave them to us.
And when we may be tempted
To mistreat another
Let us remember
That the Savior
Who loved us enough
To Atone for us
Loved them just as much.
And may the True Spirit of Christmas
Abide in our hearts forever.

 

The Light Shineth

By James P. Staples

We celebrate light in the midst of darkness:

Hope in the human heart glows strong.

Beyond the power of sense and logic - 

The Christmas Tree, the Menorah;

Even the Yule-log of the ancient tribes -

Who bowed in awe a the grandeur of Creation,

But dimly understood the Creator.

The sun ends its southward retreat,

While winter had just begun.

Yet there is hope in knowing that spring will return:

Triumphant, life-giving;

The heat and sweat of summer,

Autumn's bounteous harvest, And winter's rest - 

For even in cold and darkness, there is renewal

And a season for inward growth.

Each cycle a part of something larger:

The days, the months, and years;

The planets, stars and galaxies;

Birth, death, and eternal life: Ourselves, our families and the human family,

Hope gives us vision beyond the senses, And reason beyond mere logic.

In the season of darkness, we celebrate light, Even the eternal light of our Creator, Sustainer and Redeemer.