Reading: Matthew 1: 18-25
As you celebrate this holiest of nights, I share with you the poem my dad wrote when I was a child. To me, it is a Christmas classic and I am very proud to share it here. To you and yours, Merry Christmas. –Chad Hershberger ‘Twas the night before Christmas When all through the stable, Not a creature was stirring Although they were able. The stars were all hung In the sky with great care, In the hope that the Christ Child Soon would be there. The shepherds were nestled All snug in their beds, While visions of salvation Danced in their heads. And Mary in her kerchief And Joseph in his cap, Settled down in the stable For a long winter’s nap. When out on the hill There arose such a clatter, Shepherds sprang to their feet To see what was the matter. Angels they heard Singing on high, For the birth of a savior Surely was nigh. As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly When they meet with an obstacle mount to the sky, So too did the news of this birth spread afar And there came three wisemen guided by a star. As the earth continued its turning around Down to our world, God came with a bound. He was dressed in swaddling clothes From his feet to his head, With only a manger to call his bed. Yet His eyes how they twinkled, His dimples how merry, His cheeks were like roses His nose like a cherry. A wink of His eye and a twist of His head, Gave the wisemen to know they had nothing to dread. For Emmanuel came to dwell with us below, God in the flesh as you all know. A bundle of love God brought to us all, Correcting at last Adam and Eve’s fall. This baby whose side would be pierced with a spear To assure us from death we have nothing to fear. From Bethlehem and a baby’s lullaby To Calvary’s Hill and a blackened sky, This child’s birth did prophecy fulfill And brought to mankind peace and goodwill. So at Christmas Eve, we look from the virgin’s womb To Easter morning and an empty tomb. And because of this fact with joy and delight, Christians say, “Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.” --Charles L. Hershberger Closing: Pray this Prayer For Christmas Eve: Come, Lord Jesus, be our friend Stay with us until the end Meet us in our times of strife And when good describes our life Greet us in our neighbor’s face Make us look past color, race Come to us in wine and bread In the Word, our spirits fed As we hear your baby cries We remember dying sighs Hanging on the cross in pain For our sins, to be our gain On this Christmas Eve we sing Happy Birthday to our King!
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