Say it Out Loud. Merry Christmas!
Say it Out Loud
Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you!
I enjoyed listening to a conversation today on the Bob Branco production of In Perspective – the discussion was about celebrating Christmas. The link is below my article.
This reminded me of my own Christmas activities as a child.
I was born in the summer of 1943; my father was drafted shortly after my birth, into World War II. I never saw him for 2 years as he was in Europe with Patton’s troops. My mother and her sister, Jeanne, lived together to survive and of course my aunt helped raise me during these two years. Even though I was a baby in a crib, I have memories of this time in my life – they are my earliest memories. I remember Christmas most of all during my entire childhood. It is the most joyous time in my life over the years.
In my new book, Walking by Inner Vision: Stories & Poems, I have a chapter for each month of the year. I begin the book with January, and finish it with December. The book is a walk through the year, month by month. It is a series of memoirs and poems. For the December chapter at the end of the book, I focused on 2 events that took place at Christmas time.
“A Western Pennsylvania Christmas,” is a story about childhood and our family traditions at Christmas. My story ends with my revelation of a unique and unwanted gift I received.
The other story was of my mother’s final Christmas in her home. That story is, “The Living Room.” In this story, I share her personal history and her final days of life living with Alzheimer’s disease.
Today, in America, there is something so compelling about Christmas, that no matter how many years we live, we retain the living stories of past Christmases. The stories remain inside of us. I love the Christmas music stations on the radio. Bob and I listen to our local station from the time when we get up and it plays all day. We are inspired, delighted and filled with happiness as we listen and sing along during our days. There are many times during the year when I reach into my cupboard and pull out a Christmas CD and let it play. This joyful music can lift my spirit no matter the season.
There is a TIMELESS TRUTH that is OUR BEDROCK.
Christians can stand strong and look up. Our Jehovah God reigns for all times and in all ages. Christmas music affirms what we know, that our God loves us with an everlasting love. And, this is precisely what the perpetrators of the current trend to try to erase our history wants to destroy. This hatred of Christianity has existed from the beginning when the ruling king of that time ordered all children under the age of 2, to be killed in an effort to rid the world of our Savior, Jesus. But wait, it begins even further back in history than this example.
Why is there a movement
to take away All Things Christmas?
I believe we can really trace this question back all the way through history and into the ancient past. It has to do with God’s intervention in the world, and his leading of people whom he holds close to his heart. He is the Creator of all that exists, and that creation story includes human beings. Our first ancestors were given everything they would ever need and they even had a nightly visit with God in which they walked and talked with him and had fellowship with their own Creator. We all know what happened to interrupt their fellowship – they chose fear and distrust of their Creator over love. Since that time, the fellowship we enjoy as God’s creation is challenged and persecuted. Fear and hated of a Holy God exists yet today in our time.
We can see it when we understand our own human history.
The Judeo-Christian World View is challenged
by lovers of confusion and destruction.
It’s an OLD STORY.
Unbelievers are trying to STEAL CHRISTMAS.
Say it OUT LOUD.
Jesus is Lord of All.
Merry Christmas.
***
Listen to a Discussion of Christmas InPerspective with Bob and Al:
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This essay is the property of Lynda McKinney Lambert. Copyright, December 19, 2017.
Lynda in her Meditation Garden, Wurtemburg, PA
Lynda McKinney Lambert lives in a rural village in western Pennsylvania. She writes poetry and creative non-fiction essays.
Lambert’s first book, Concerti: Psalms for the Pilgrimage, was published by Kota Press.
Her second book is Walking by Inner Vision: Stories & Poems, published in 2017 by DLD Books, Denver, Colorado.
Lynda’s 3rd book, Star Signs, is currently in development for publication in 2018.
Her work appears in Spirit Fire Review; Indiana Voice Journal; Magnets & Ladders; Stylist; Breath & Shadow; Wordgathering; The Avocet; Proverse Hong Kong Poetry Prize Anthology 2017; Naturewriting; Plum Tree Tavern; Behind our Eyes: A Second Look – Anthology; Tanka Society of America and other literary journals and anthologies.
Visit her Blog: www.lyndalambert.com
View her Author’s Page: www.dldbooks.com/lyndalambert
Contact her: llambert@zoominternet.net
Our truest life is when we are in our dreams – awake.” Henry David Thoreau