Barbara's Random Thoughts

I'm headed out early tomorrow morning. I'll be in SoCal for Christmas with family, then NYC for a work conference, then back to LA for New Year's, then finally back home after the first of the year. Whew. So, posting here will be sparse for a while.

Enjoy the holidays, everyone, and here's a poem for you before I go.

I wrote this after returning from a semester studying in Italy. I felt like Christmas snuck up on me that year. December had been a whirl of papers, finals, goodbyes, a last round of travel, then home to CA, where Christmas seemed to happen on me without warning.

On Christmas Eve that year, I realized "Christmas without warning" was exactly what happened to the shepherds with the angels on the night of Christ's birth. They were woken up in the middle of the night by a sudden blaze of light and the announcement that the Messiah had come.

December seems like it's always a blur, with little time to glance up and see what's going on...or to bow in reverence. May we all wake up, rub the sleep out of our eyes, and respond to the news of Christ's birth with joy and amazement.

Christmas Eve

In a quiet moment
I come before you.
Like a shepherd,
I kneel in the hay
and I catch my breath
at the idea that before me,
in this newborn baby,
is the Son of God.
My Savior,
my Lord.
And I adore.