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