Because of The Reason...

Happy New Year!

No matter what 2026 brings

God is faithful and He is good!

Forgetting the things which are behind...

I press onward...Phil. 3:13-14

The dinner is savored, 

the gifts have been given...

The treats have been tasted,

 the memories made...

( this was just before youngest grandson, imitating older brother

 twirled the ornament,  sent it sailing and it shattered 😅)

And gathered like earth-granted glimpses of Heaven

To treasure long after its elements fade...💖

The dinner is savored, the gifts have been given

The treats have been tasted, the memories made

And gathered like earth-granted glimpses of Heaven

To treasure long after its elements fade

The details long planned for and prepped have been scattered

To tinctures and textures in Bygone’s tableau

Sweet Laughter and Longing leave hearts gently shattered

Where all that we hold, we must learn to let go

Life’s commonplace duties restore happy order

We’ve washed up the dishes and swept up the crumbs

While grappling with time’s inevitable charter

From Anticipation to Aftermath’s sums

Till only the Reason for the season lingers

As tinsel and twinkle lights are packed away

How futile the ribbons we tug with our fingers

If Christmas is simply a festive holiday

The music of carols has faded like flowers

Where spent notes and petals comingle, adrift

But, praise God, the Reason for the season showers

Each hour with gladness because of His gift

His gift is a Beacon, an Anchor, a Solace

No matter what was, is, or waits yet to be

The Reason for the season that we call Christmas

Is more than an ornament hung on a tree

Is more than a present soon lost in life’s shuffle

As we shoulder creature cares, constant and real

Where hope, joy and peace are the heart's chocolate truffle

Because of the Reason no season can steal

Janet Martin

The Reason for the season that we call Christmas

Is more than an ornament hung on a tree...

A Song of Joy

Matt.1:23

“Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, 

and they shall call His name Immanuel,” 

which is translated, “God with us.”

From our house to yours greetings and best wishes for  

a Blessed Christmas Day

as we celebrate the birth of Jesus, our Saviour

If God would not have loved this world enough to give His Son

Faith would be futile; the battle that crushed death's head not won

Without the birth of Jesus Christ who came to earth to save

Us from the curse of sin, how vain this sojourn to the grave

If there had been no Saviour born, fulfilling prophecy

If Mary had not trusted and said 'be it unto me'

In vain we all would plead for help and seek for hope to tell

If Jesus Christ had not been born to be 'Immanuel'

To bridge the gap with the long foretold shoot from Jesse's rod

For the impossible is not impossible with God

The Virgin Mary bore a Son, conceived in Mystery

The Babe of Bethlehem, to change the course of history

...for He, would rend the veil that hung twixt mortal and Divine

So all may enter in to break the bread and drink the wine

So all may know the Way, the Truth, the Life, so all may find

Glad tidings of great joy and peace from God to humankind 

This is the day the Lord has made to rejoice evermore

Jesus came to this world to settle and pardon sin's score

So all who repent and believe are freed from death and hell

Glory to God for Jesus Christ our LORD,  Immanuel 

Janet Martin

Of Christmas, Rest and Wintertime (or, with Half-welcome Wonderment)

 Happy Winter Solstice!

...each window framing Christmas cards...

Across the land where summer set grandstands of leafy silhouette

And spread its table with the grace of chamomile and Queen Ann’s lace

Now, with half-welcome wonderment we wake to unflawed filament

Of dazzling stars and diamond shards; each window framing Christmas cards

Wakening hearts to joys forgot while days were dusty, long and hot

And tuning happiness with ways not lost to Bygone’s ‘good, old days’

The bluejay, still sassy and bold, home, still a haven from the cold

The kitchen, still like a warm hug where we fill dinner plate and mug

And remember fond days gone by that bring a teardrop to the eye

Where here and there an empty chair draws tender pictures on the air

Of those we miss with aching heart and then we kiss love’s works of art

And thank the Lord that He saw fit to bless us with love’s precious bit

Ere holding turned to letting go; and now we treasure each ‘hello’

With pleasure, not perceived before we grieved a Farewell-fettered door

And now we take a closer look at pictures in a phantom book

Capturing the tittle and jot that lays another year to naught

Shaping perspective with the ink of berry-blue and blossom-pink

Of dream-hued greens, of golds and reds, of fields tucked in like featherbeds

While learning how to marvel more as season’s skim time’s ballroom floor

Composing ballads, brushed with sage/age, that never bare lyric to page

But make us sweetly, humbly glad for each arpeggio/upsy-daisy we had

Where joy is purer in the wake of holy valleys of heartache

And winter with its surly bite unfurls its showcase of delight

As, with half-welcome wonderment, we smile though we are weather-bent

Embracing life’s unflinching law that unleashes a storm of awe

Soft-wafting flakes and stinging gales, feet blazing knee-deep frigid trails

To gain a pristine point of view where morning fills the old with new

And with half-welcome wonderment find we are growing snow-content

Contented not to understand the whys of winter’s wonderland

The ‘hows’ that howl and hurl the Must of life like swirls of snow and dust

Where love is always unprepared when it comes to sorrow’s soul bared

But faith and hope will always bare/bear the beauty of God’s faithful care

And as the inner child beholds the way that winter white enfolds

The earth beneath a wreath of rest, Longing laughs, feeling like a guest

In a world, though broken and scarred, touching a free-for-all Postcard

As half-welcome wonderment brims, dissolving in no-holds-barred hymns

All hail the pow’r of He who grants each season-gifted song and dance

Praise God for love’s blessings to cheer each up and down throughout year

Exalt the Name that saves us from the dread of cold, dark heathendom

Let winter glisten like a gem in earth’s/faith’s four-season diadem

The fire crackles in the hearth, the chicken cackles with egg-mirth

The oven hosts aromas wild with scents that wake our inner-child

To happiness we oft forget in summer’s leafy silhouette

Of slower pace/grace of frosty clime, of Christmas, rest and wintertime

Janet Martin

Wonder-witnesses

Last night I got home after Jim (husband) was sleeping and he got up early to leave

so I got up as well to see him off.

then I was wide awake so I settled down for some 'quiet-time'

(such as praying for my sister-in-law Karen who is having 

a hip-replacement surgery today!! prayers valued)

but, my quiet-time was soon interrupted by a rather

suspicious rustling, so I set the mouse traps I have been saving for Jim to set,

...then returned to reading and writing (a few minutes ago I heard a 'snap!')

The background music and backdrop of poetry is often anything but poetic!!

This poem was inspired in part by a conversation this morning

 (while we waited for the coffee to brew) about

how it's harder to get the Christmas 'feeling' as we get older...

Also in part by my devotion passage from Isa.43.

As I read through the chapter I was suddenly so thankful

for the Christmas 'knowing' which is better forever

than just a 'feeling'.

We, by faith are witnesses of Hope's reason!

We are witnesses of wonder!

Isa.43:10-11

“You are My witnesses,” says the Lord,

“And My servant whom I have chosen,

That you may know and believe Me,

And understand that I am He.

Before Me there was no God formed,

Nor shall there be after Me.

11 I, even I, am the Lord,

And besides Me there is no savior.

We are witnesses of wonder...

He whose Word will never dim

Causes earth and sky to thunder

With the evidence of Him...

(upstairs window with a screen was my only option

to capture December dusk yesterday)

a wonder-evoking beauty in spite of being blocked by buildings

We are witnesses of wonder

He whose Word will never dim

Causes earth and sky to thunder

With the evidence of Him

Causes creation to capture

Eyes and ears with sight and sound

Overflowing hearts with rapture

As both great and small confound

We are witnesses of glory

So we may know and believe

In He who fulfilled love's story

Hope, joy and peace to achieve

He whose servant-like behaviour

Purchased pardon for sin's debt

Hallelujah, what a Saviour

Dying in the sinner's stead

We are witnesses of promise

Only faith can apprehend

As we fix our eyes on Jesus

And hope's assurance defend

As we trust the One and Only

Author and Perfecter of

Faith; as His truth cheers the lonely

With His everlasting love

We are witnesses of wonder

Where good tidings of great joy

Break the bars of hell asunder

Through Bethlehem's Baby Boy

Glory to God in the highest

Glory to the King of kings

Glory to His love unbiased

And the hope that Jesus brings

He, wounded for our transgression,

Bruised for our iniquities

Through Calvary's intercession

Fulfilled ancient prophecies

We, witnesses of salvation

We, who by His stripes are healed

Sing with joyful exaltation

For the Lord's pleasure revealed 

We are witnesses of 'Knowing'

What the angels sang about

Of the love of God bestowing

Light to pierce shadows of doubt

Of the Word that makes His dwelling

In the likes of you and me

Witnesses of Christ's compelling

Love for all humanity

Janet Martin

Mary's Boy Child- Jim Reeves

Jesus, Joy of the Highest Heaven (A Children's Carol) - Keith & Kristyn Getty

Praise God For Man's First Christmas Gift

Acts 2:38-41

Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you

in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins,

 and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.

39 For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, 

even as many as the Lord our God shall call.

40 And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, 

Save yourselves from this untoward generation.

41 Then they that gladly received his word were baptized:

This morning in majestic splendour, the heavens declared the glory of God 

and proclaimed the work of His hands...(Ps.19:1)

The God whose love gave us His Son, Jesus, so all who believe in Him

will not perish but have eternal life! (John 3:16)

The God who calls all of us to worship, 

not the created, but the Creator! (Rom.1:25)

All who beheld, worshipped one or the other!

Does His work not rouse a hymn of gladness for love's greatest work/gift of all?!!

Praise God for man's first Christmas gift; Jesus, Emmanuel

For the good tidings of great joy, which Is for all people

For promises of old fulfilled; for God's goodness unfurled

In the very first Christmas gift; the Saviour of the world 

Praise God for man's first Christmas joy, uncomprehend when 

Shepherds hastened to see the Baby boy at Bethlehem

Believing without understanding what the angels told

As the ancient redemption promise began to unfold 

Praise God for man's first Christmas hymn; glory to God on high

And on earth peace, goodwill to men,  rang from the midnight sky

 With a message of hope for all who believe in His name

Praise God for the first Christmas gift that faith alone can claim

Praise God for the first Christmas Day; the day of Jesus' birth

 The King of kings and Lord of lords stepped from His throne, to earth 

Praise Him for joy and peace because He conquered death and hell

Praise God for man's first Christmas gift; Jesus, Emmanuel 

Janet Martin

Jesus, Messiah 

A Continued Reflection...

A continued reflection of The Greatest Gift

of God's Son Jesus, who came to earth

to be our Saviour...

Below are the first words I read today!

AWESOME!! 

1 John 5:1-5 NKJV

Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, 

and everyone who loves Him who begot 

also loves him who is begotten of Him. 

2 By this we know that we love the children of God, 

when we love God and keep His commandments.

 3 For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments.

 And His commandments are not burdensome.

 4 For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. 

And this is the victory that has overcome the world—[a]our faith. 

5 Who is he who overcomes the world, 

but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

Above is a picture of the Christmas Card I had hoped to send

to so many more than I managed to accomplish,

due in part, to the mail strike and in part to

simply not getting it done

If you are reading this, then know this card is for you,

dear friend, whether near and far! 

Thank-you so much for your kindness in 2024,

(but esp. since the loss of my sister Lucy on Sept.17)

For the Christmas season I turned my fridge door into a prayer-reminder board

for family, church-family and neighbours who 

are missing loved ones this Christmas💔🙏

Below, a tender poem dropped in my mailbox the other day...

Faith is no rigid religion

It rejoices and it mourns

It bows in willing subjection

Beneath Fealty's crown of thorns 

It believes, before beholding

It trusts God's eternal Word

It protects its mortal molding

With full armour of the Lord 

Looking, beyond this world's dwelling 

To a City yet to come

Faith seeks riches beyond telling

In the Soul's Forever Home

Faith, the substance of things hidden

Gazes at the Evidence

Jesus, come to earth from Heaven

To author faith's recompense 

 

Jesus cheers faith's transportation

With hope and joy in His Name 

Because the gift of salvation

Is the Reason Jesus came

Hallelujah!

Janet 🙏

Below, a poem from my mother

Glorious Gift

From our family to yours, Merry Christmas

...and last but not least, the youngest who would not

shift from this expression 😂😅😆

(which is why I didn't push for a pic of the three together)

2 Cor.9:15

Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!

No joy to comfort groaning grief

No hope to cheer the soul 

No faith to counter unbelief

Or make our spirits whole

No Light to pierce the sin-dark world

No peace, no battle won

No everlasting love unfurled

For each and everyone

No healing from our wounds within

No cross, no Christendom 

No forgiveness for our sin

If Jesus had not come

No escape then from death and hell

No captive chains undone

No Saviour, because mankind fell

If Jesus had not come

No Heaven for all who believe

Satan, not overthrown

No deathless promise to receive

If Jesus had not come

So as we celebrate, oh pray

With gladdened hearts we lift

A hymn of praise this Christmas day  

For God's glorious gift

© Janet Martin 

Sing Hallelujah to the Light of the World 

Invitation to Celebration!

Doesn't it make our sorrow and suffering-weary hearts

Leap with hope and joy?!

As once more we ponder the wonderful gift

of Bethlehem's Baby Boy,

  Emmanuel, meaning God with us!!

No matter what life brings

No trouble can transcend Jesus

And the comfort that still rings

Throughout the centuries

For mankind's common ground

For we all need God's Gift of grace

Only in Jesus found

Ehp.2:1-10

As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 

2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world

 and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, 

the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 

3 All of us also lived among them at one time,

 gratifying the cravings of our flesh[a] and following its desires and thoughts. 

Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. 

4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy,

 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—

it is by grace you have been saved.

 6 And God raised us up with Christ

 and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus,

 7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, 

expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 

8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—

and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 

9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 

10 For we are God’s handiwork, 

created in Christ Jesus to do good works, 

which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Come, oh Come, Emmanuel 

Christmas Day, 1915

Listen to Emmett Cahill's complete Christmas concert HERE

***

Emmanuel has come! The Saviour of the world

The Patriarch of Christendom, hope's beacon has unfurled

The Lamb of Calvary, the Shepherd of the soul

Jesus, to fulfill prophecy since Ancient Days foretold

Come, and faith's Gift receive, bow before He who said

That all who repent and believe, in death are never dead

But have eternal life. The battle Jesus won

Upon the cross sweetens faith's strife through the gift of God's Son

He whose sorrow subdued, nay, conquered death and hell

He bore sin's brutal debt accrued since Adam and Eve fell 

In Eden's garden when through doubt they were deceived

And sinned; perfection ruined then, and the Creator grieved 

Hark! for the angel's song still fills dark night with Morn

Good tidings of great joy belong to sinners, weary-worn

Whom God did not ignore, but gave, through love's increase

Jesus! Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Prince of Peace

Janet Martin

The days leading up to Christmas can feel pretty crazy with busyness!

Let's never let the season crowd out its Reason! 

Merry-two-days-before Christmas! 

Matt.1:21

She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus,

 because he will save his people from their sins.”

Christmas Happiness and Joy

Cherishing like never before 

Christmas Happiness and Joy

Both the simple...

Basic Shortbread

Shortbread with dark chocolate and instant coffee bits

Shortbread with toasted pecans, dark chocolate and toffee bits

and profound...

1 John 4:9-12

9 This is how God showed his love among us:

 He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 

10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us 

and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 

11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

 12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, 

God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

Christmas happiness and joy...

When shortbread, dark chocolate and toffee bits-sweet and toasted pecans and taste buds meet😋

When snowflakes waft, tumble, lilt, sparkle and swirl and the heart feels like a ballerina-twirl/girl

When windows, gold, lamp-lit at eventide frame frosty blue vistas of countryside

When hustle and bustle of shopping and cleaning and cooking don festive attire and meaning

When songs of the season with timeless oblation ring out the glad reason for hope's celebration

Because Jesus Christ, mankind's Saviour was born in a Bethlehem stable on that first Christmas morn

To cheer generations with wonder and love because God knew only His Son was enough

To be sin's last sacrifice, once and for all; Jesus, the name on which every heart may call

To find hope and joy that no sorrow can dim after we have put our faith in Him

© Janet Martin 

Jesus, Joy of the Highest Heaven

Jesus, Only Jesus

Happy Christmas Day- Charlie Pride

Christmas That Never Ends

Day-after-Christmas contemplation...

The hustle and bustle of Christmas busyness,

the rustle of wrapping paper,

the frenzy of last minute food and gift prep,

the shrieks of excitement and delight

will soon fade like fond footfalls of farewell,

we collect in heart-vaults.

...but the Spirit of Christmas,

because of God's everlasting goodness through the gift

of his Son, Jesus, is hopefully a daily joy, all year through!

Christmas Season, with all its fuss and bustle will soon fade

And disappear into the hush of Bygone’s promenade

But, Belief in the Reason for the season, anchors peace

His everlasting goodness gladdens hope with joy’s increase

Belief transforms the lens we look through to find happiness

It mends the holes in our souls with precious promises

And grounds faith in the merit of love, unfathomable

Where Father, Son and Spirit manifests Immanuel

Where redemption endorses profound possibility

The blood of Christ that cleanses and atones, sets sinners free

From the inherent curse; the first-fruit that first sin conceived

But God so rich in mercy washed away when we believed

This keeps the joy of Christmas alive in us all year long

His everlasting goodness kindles everlasting song

Because belief in the Reason for the Season transcends

The temporal; Jesus gives us Christmas that never ends

© Janet Martin

the morning after

a lot of laughter, food and joys aka noise😅💖!!!

John 10;10

I have come that they may have life, 

and that they may have it more abundantly.

Jesus~

Lord, As We Linger in the Presence of Christ's Sacred Birth, (A Christmas Prayer)

John 1:14

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. 

We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, 

who came from the Father, 

full of grace and truth.

From our House to Yours

Joyous Christmas Blessings~

Lord, as we come, like shepherds and wise men of old this morn

To gather in the stable where Christ, our Saviour was born

Waken a sweeter wonder as our gifts of worship ring

Renew a humbler hunger for the hope you came to bring

Lord, as we haste to see the Baby in a manger bed

And gaze on He who came as sin’s atonement in our stead

Impress on us anew love’s allotment of joy and grief

Then kindle purer gratitude, abolish unbelief

Lord, as we kneel before You, let the incense of prayers rise

In utter adoration, as we consider faith’s Prize

Deliver us from evil, tune our hearts to hear Your Voice

Where this dark world seeks to drown angel-anthems of 'rejoice!'

Lord, as we linger in the Presence of Christ’s sacred Birth

As You unveil Your glory in the highest to the earth

As we behold Your glory, full of grace and truth, Lord, then

Increase in us glad tidings of peace and goodwill. Amen

© Janet Martin

Luke 2:8-20

Glory in the Highest

8 Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 And [c]behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. 10 Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. 11 For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. 12 And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a [d]manger.”

13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying:

14 “Glory to God in the highest,

And on earth peace, goodwill[e] toward men!”

15 So it was, when the angels had gone away from them into heaven, that the shepherds said to one another, “Let us now go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has come to pass, which the Lord has made known to us.” 16 And they came with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the Babe lying in a manger. 17 Now when they had seen Him, they made [f]widely known the saying which was told them concerning this Child. 18 And all those who heard it marveled at those things which were told them by the shepherds. 19 But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart. 20 Then the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told them.

Joy to the World (Traditional)

Beholding Christmas (or Joy's Supremacy)

Isa.9:6-7

For unto us a child is born,

unto us a son is given,

and the government will be upon His shoulders.

And He will be called

Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,

Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

7Of the increase of His government and peace

there will be no end.

He will reign on the throne of David

and over his kingdom,

to establish and sustain it

with justice and righteousness

from that time and forevermore.

The zeal of the LORD of Hosts will accomplish this.

***

The more we try the less it seems we can comprehend

the vastness of God's everlasting love!

That's why there are SO many poems and hymns

composed, trying to put into words

what words can never fully express-

of worship enough to fill eternity!

Hallelujah!

Come, Thou Long-expected Jesus

Behold the love/Son of God

Born for sin’s sacrifice

To bear hatred’s most cruel rod

To pay salvation’s price

Behold Bethlehem’s Boy

Redemption’s humble King

Who knew good tidings of great joy

Would cost Him everything

Behold, the Prince of Peace

Behold the zeal of He

Whose grief accomplished the increase

Of His/joy's supremacy

Behold Humility

Child of Mary’s travail

I AM fulfilling prophecy

In minutest detail

Behold, hope’s Star unfurled

Kneel at the manger, then

Behold, the Saviour of the world

Behold Christmas. Amen

Behold, a child is born

Behold, a Son is giv'n

To pierce hell's darkness with a Thorn

That lights the Wick of Heav'n

© Janet Martin

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel

Micah 5:4

And He shall stand and feed[a] His flock
In the strength of the Lord,
In the majesty of the name of the Lord His God;
And they shall abide,
For now He shall be great
To the ends of the earth;  

“He Shall Be Their Peace” - 12/22/2023

We Are All Children (at Christmas Time)

we were counting cookies, one, two, three

when someone stole the cherries!

H-m-m-m, who could it be 😂💗

this poem is a mingling of past, present and future

part recollection, part participation

and part anticipation 😋😊💖

Arms open wide to big hugs of hello

Breath hangs on air, breathless with stars of snow

Scents from the kitchen delight young and old

(We are all children when licking out bowls)

Love looks for ways to fit into a box

Dollies and teddy bears, books, balls and blocks

New socks, odd gadgets, bubble bath, wind chime

(We are all children at gift-giving/getting time)

Tins fill with many a sugary prize

Budget and extravagance compromise

Cook-space grows crowded, taste-testers abound

(We are all children where cookies are found)

Christmas hymns kindle heart-hearths with love’s joy

We thrill as gladness spills from girl and boy

Joy to the World, Silent Night, Deck the Halls

(We are all children while singing those car’ls )

Hark! hear that glorious story again

Gaze at the angels, shepherds and wise men

Kneel at the manger, be wondrously awed

For, we are all children when gazing at God

© Janet Martin

Hark! hear that glorious story again

Gaze at the angels, shepherds and wise men

Kneel at the manger, be wondrously awed

For, we are all children when gazing at God