Martha, Martha...

 

this song isn't considered a Christmas Carol but I wish it was!

Every year I resolve to have a Mary Christmas, 

sitting at His feet, as it were, begging, tell me the story of Jesus 

... then the phone rings; someone wants a recipe, 

The fuel-man drops by trying to ease the blow on the pink slip 

with a humorous Norman Rockwell calendar

and Jim is leaving and needs breakfast and supplies

 and little girl is hungry for ' Baby Jesus birthday cookies, please'

...and I remember the laundry I started when I got up 

...and the fire too, (now needing re-starting)

 ...as I hunt for a stapler to hang up a new card

...and try to remember where I was before the thing that is, was.

and I haven't even touched the to-do list!

...sometimes I think I feel someone tapping me on the shoulder in gentle reprimand 

whispering, "Martha, Martha!"

 

³⁸ As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. ³⁹ She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. ⁴⁰ But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”

⁴¹ “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, ⁴² but few things are needed—or indeed only one.^[a] Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”

 Oh! and this morning's first-day-of-winter sunrise was spectacular!

Thank-you, God, thank-you so much for myriad, breath-stealing beauty every single day!

 At our house there is as much thought put into Christmas Eve menu as Christmas Day

Little finger-foody treats to look forward to after the Christmas Eve Service.

But always first we read the story of Jesus' birth out of the big, old Family Bible

(and then, for a few minutes I feel like Mary;-)

 

But to make that Eve and Christmas everything it has *traditionally been
*(because traditions make the 'remember how we always...)

It takes planning and prep!

So, this poem is in Martha's defense:)

...for, if I sit too long 

in pastures green

by waters cool

Then who will feed 

the hungry throngs

home from work

or after school

and all they wonder 

there and now

is

'where's the chow?'

...sometimes I chide myself

My fuss and all

as I fret over 

dipped peanut-butter balls

(when the chocolate won't melt

and it tastes stale!)

Inhale, 

Exhale

...be still, fluttering heart

while I dream of rooms

and food that look

and taste

like a works of art

"Tell me the story of Jesus"

So on Christmas Eve

we sit

and turn to the pages that tell

of Heaven's marvelous gift

sent to earth

in Baby's birth

Wonder washes over us

in heavenly peace rare and sweet

Until someone breaks 

the silence with

'What's to eat?'

By Martha 
aka Janet 

It really is a Reason worthy of our best!
That's the thing to remember as we prioritize 
and dust and polish:)