ANOTHER VIEW: There’ll always be a Christmas_122004

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Posted: 12/17/04

ANOTHER VIEW:
There'll always be a Christmas

As one grows older, the valuables of life become more treasured. Friendships are rooted more deeply in the soil of human need. Homes are marked within and without with meaningful “hand-me-downs,” pictures of the children and grandchildren, reminders of visits by joy-bringers, gracious serendipities that have added so much to the journey.

We would be hard-pressed to place pricetags on the presence of special individuals, who at trying times have felt voicemail was hardly sufficient. They knew that we needed broad shoulders to lean upon and how to adjust in the crowded world we live in.

BO Baker

There have been the constant pressures to downgrade our moral values; plus a mindset equipped to deal with the gray climate brought upon us by the terrorist who cannot have the priceless gift of peace, nor properly evaluate hope for international brothering.

Yes, and even the Christmas season, declaring the birth of the Savior, is badgered by hatemongers whose outspoken objective is to destroy every semblance of our thanksgiving for the reality of the virgin-born King!

These recent years have brought us the choice of denominational loyalties as well as a strong new call to affirm our commitment to world missions–and all the while, we have been stalked continuously by vile advocators of a world that has no time or place for Christmas!

It is here and it is now that Christian believers must “draw their line in the sand,” declaring faith and trust in the God of Christmas morning! Forbid it, Lord, should the lights of Christmas lose their glow! We need Christmas so desperately!

I ask forgiveness should these rhetoritics seem overly strained with deep wrinkles of concern. How I wish their humble gift of pen and promise might find a warm lodging in the hearts of believers everywhere.

Nevertheless, we have come again to Christmas to find it inundated with question marks. How long will it last, this glorious grace of Christmas? Should I be given the boldness for replication with all others who share the Christ of kind, I would stand strong to answer:

There'll always be a Christmas

So long as truth remains in trust,

Conceived with promise held inviolate;

So long as faith confirms the birth

Of Day Spring's glad arriving;

So long as Wise Men find the star,

And Shepherds know where angels are;

So long as gifts are bought with care,

And joyful laughter fills the air;

So long as hope responds in kind,

To share the breathless news divine;

So long as children dream their dreams,

Of lions and lambs in single ring;

So long as streets are free from hate,

Where young and old can congregate;

So long as fields awake to green,

Long Winter's wind still welcomes Spring,

So long as angels anthem sing,

And Virgin's Child is crowned the King–

There'll always be a Christmas.

BO Baker, a longtime Texas Baptist pastor and evangelist, has written a Christmas reflection for the Baptist Standard for 29 consecutive years.

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