A Christmas Story
ChildrenLetting myself into the dark apartment, I checked on sleeping Carl, on sleeping Sean, and on Shannon. Shannon was wide-awake, smiling, and on her knees in her footed, fuzzy, zip-up jammies looking out the towering windows beside her bed. Kneeling beside her, together we gazed in wonder at the many lights of the city below and the silent stars high in the sky, and I sang to her.
How silently, how silently the wondrous gift is giv’n!
So God imparts to human hearts the blessings of His heav’n.
I know He’s out there, I thought, even if I can’t hear Him or see Him. For right now, for this moment, I can be as peaceful as Shannon.
No ear may hear His coming, but in this world of sin,
Where meek souls will receive Him still the dear Christ enters in.
It wasn’t candles or carols my soul needed, but the blessing of God’s heaven. A real Christmas had seemed so far away, but somehow my very aloneness was bringing me closer to understanding a Christmas reality. How silently the wondrous gift is given. I needed to let God’s gift, the dear Christ, be enough.
This was real Christmas. God brought heaven to earth. I wasn’t alone.
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