BAH! humbug!

You know the story; but the man is converted in the end by what has been, what is, and what will be.

What about you? Do you have a Christmas story to warm our hearts?

Please share it, by way of a COMMENT. Your witness is important to me and to others.

Here are just a few from my past:

• I was told frequently that my parents had to walk to the grocery store for food and milk after the big snow storm of 1950. I was just four months old at Christmas. (Sorry, no pictures – but my sister probably has them.)

Do your Christmas pictures tell a story? *like the family pictures we used to see on Christmas cards? – Go ahead an send me one at roger.harned@yahoo.com if you would like us to post it.

• From a long ago as I remember, we all had personal stockings with our own name on it. Roger, Jenny & Eddie *in that order. And then much later, Kenny. Yes, they were hung by the chimney of our real fireplace with care. And on Christmas morning we always had to open all the gifts in the stocking before the big presents. We always had an apple and and orange in it.
• When Rachel was born, Christmas got much bigger in our home (although we always went to church Christmas eve, went caroling, went to Christmas parties and more). Her stocking was hung by the chimney with care. Yes, it was a real fireplace with real wood fires. Rachel’s stocking *even at Grandma’s was mysteriously bigger than everyone else’s.

I have a picture of me and Rachel when she was about 5. I’ll see if I’m allowed to post it. (I will not get to spend Christmas with my children this year. Songs about home for the holidays and mistletoe and other warm and artificially nostalgic memories sometimes make me sad instead of able to show ‘joy to the world.’ Even in Christian households, Christ must be more a part of Christmas and the love of God to send His only Son to a manger for a perfect act of love ought to be our memory to break though the silent nights.

Enough nostalgia. Please share your Christmas stories.

*Look for my Christmas messages to continue from Advent messages posted this week on Beatitudes for the Multitudes beginning Monday, December 23, 2013.

Don’t be a Scrooge and keep your Christian Social Witness to yourself.

Please share it with us.

Roger