Christ mas Eve

Sometimes it is the words to a song, a tree I see, a creature, or the things going on around me that give me the thoughts I share here.
This year it is a song. My new favorite Christ mas song is called Christmas Canon. It is part of an album by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. Within the album there are many words that strike me and fill my thoughts.

On Christ mas eve I like to write when it's dark and the world seems to be still. It's not true at all as a mere quarter mile away is a very busy street and the world is not truly quiet. Vastly different from the day Jesus was born. The differences between what we know about then and what we have now are almost night and day. I wondered today what was in the mind of the young girl who was about to give birth to the Saviour child. What was it like to spend so much time traveling, walking and/or swaying on a donkey while your body is groaning with discomfort. And, all the while you have no idea if you will make it in time, will your travels be safe, and what will await you. Just imagine yourself on a trip, pulling into a city and finding out there aren't any available rooms, and by the way, you are about to give birth. Then someone tells you the only available place is the carport or the garage. No clean hospital or birthing center and.... did I mention it's cold outside?

Deep inside this Christmas Eve
Watching as the hours leave

In a few hours time will roll itself into a new day and it will be Christ mas. Unlike Thanksgiving, Christ mas is a world wide celebration for people anywhere in the world that believe in Christ and what came into this world on that night so long ago...a saviour.

He wondered what that child had thought
And when he slept what dreams he sought
And did the shepherds understand
all the hopes in that child's hands?
And how those hopes would still survive
As dreams within each newborns eyes

A friend from high school posted a story on Facebook today that made me weep with the thought of people who would not make it home to be with their loved ones for Christ mas...because they will have made it home to be with Christ instead. Such sorrow and yet happiness rolled into one event on a day we want to celebrate, have fun, make jokes, make a mess with wrapping paper, eat good food, share our hearts all because of one shining star and a small child born in a far a way land in the unlikely place of an animal barn with a manger for a bed.

Merry Christ mas - Merry Christ mas - Merry Christ mas - Merry Christ mas
The hope that he brings - The hope that he brings - The hope that he brings - The hope that he brings
This night We pray Our lives Will show
This dream He had Each child Still knows
We are waiting
We have not forgotten
On this night - On this night
On this very Christ mas night