MAYBE IT'S CHRISTMAS!

Three days until Christmas!  There was a time in my life when I would have been stressing just reading those four words.  Stressing that I had gifts for everyone, a big dinner planned, decorating done, cards written, house cleaned...

Thankfully that's no longer the case.  Sooner or later one grows up and realizes that Christmas doesn't have to be stressful.  It should be special and beautiful, but it doesn't have to be stressful.

For a lot of people, Christmas is a lonely time, a sad time.   Maybe they have lost their loved ones, or maybe they haven't lost them, but still won't be able to be with them for Christmas.

Maybe it's their first Christmas in a nursing home. -  maybe it's their second or third!

Maybe it's a young student's first Christmas away from home and family, because they can barely afford tuition, and for sure can't afford a flight home.

Maybe someone is in poor health, and just can't be far from their caregivers.  

Maybe someone just found out they have cancer, and they are so afraid of the future they can't even really begin to wrap their head around the fact that it is Christmas.

Maybe they are a single Mom on welfare, barely making the rent, with no way to give her family a nice meal or a iphone, that the television tells every kid that Santa can bring!

Maybe that thought that rattles around in our heads - the one that we wish times could be simpler around Christmas isn't all that foreign after all.  Maybe we aren't the only ones who think it -even if we think we are!

Maybe we all need a "Walton's Christmas".  Maybe we all need a "Homecoming" - even if we can never go home again.

Maybe we need a Christmas Tale, to remind us of why there is a Christmas in the first place.

I just happen to have one, that I wrote 6 years ago, on a winter day a few days before Christmas - much like this one.


My wish is that everyone finds what they "need" this Christmas. 

To all who read my posts every time I post them, Thank You for your support.  I wish you all a Very Blessed Christmas!




THE CHRISTMAS TALE


Forgotten is the little babe,
Born so long ago;
And the story that surrounds his birth,
Is one some folks don’t know.

The story says some angels came,
To tell about the child;
I guess to our rich cyber world,
This tale appears quite wild.

Three wise men came, or were they kings?
And did they travel far?
How come they walked alone at night,
And followed some bright star?

About that star that shone so bright;
How did it know just where,
The tiny newborn kid would lay;
And who’d it think would care?

Upon a pile of hay it’s told,
The baby’s crib was made.
With animals there, enclosed within,
A barn is where they stayed.

A virgin Mom, a dirt-poor Dad,
And yet they had a King.
They say he came to earth for me;
Whoever heard of such a thing?

I wasn’t even here as yet,
Nor was my family tree.
How’d he know we’d come in time,
How’d he know about me?

They tell me that he loved me then,
And that he loves me still;
Baby Jesus came to fill my heart,
I pray he always will.

However you believe this story goes,
Its one tale always told;
By those with truth and faith and love,
In wondrous pageant bold.

Repeated new each year that comes,
Great story; same great end.
The greatest story ever told,
The greatest story penned.


Dale Graumann
2011