Fear Not! Peace On Earth! Joy!

There is so much on my mind this Advent Season. My family has so very much to be grateful for this year and various events have drawn me closer to my Lord & Savior over the last month or so.  I still haven't gotten it all right. Never will, I suspect. But sometimes, I have had to take a step back and look at everything.
 

From a nature walk last month

My trials and tribulations seem so small in comparison to what so many are going through right now - not just around me, but around the world. There are wars, rumors of war, death, deadly disease, crime, you name it - and that is just the big stuff - the news can be very frightening at times (some days, I just don't want to know). We struggle against these things.  The book we are reading for Advent as a family has the angel saying, "Fear not!" on a regular basis. Fear not! Fear not! I have to commit those words to my heart. But God came to us in human form. He sent His Son!  Fear not!

I have watched my 4 year old daughter dance around to our various Christmas cds over the last week or so. One of her favorites is Gloria. Maybe because it is simple. But she is so careful when she dances to it. If our smallest ones can dance so carefully and passionately while thinking of God's gift to us, can you image what it must have sounded like when the very angels sang his praises to the shepherds in the fields? Shouldn't we be so excited?!

Our dancing angel when she was just 2.

Luke 2:14 tells us, "“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”

Peace on earth.

Peace: Heavenly rest; the happiness of heaven. (definition #6 from Webster's 1828 Dictionary)

I have blogged about it before, but Longfellow's poem Christmas Bells is one of my favorite poems. When I think about the words and what how he takes us through what so many think at times. When we look at the despair around us, it is easy to get sucked in to thinking there is nothing good around us. No peace. The part that strikes me most every time I read it or hear it are the last 2 stanzas.

And in despair I bowed my head;
“There is no peace on earth,” I said;
    “For hate is strong,
    And mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!”

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
“God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
    The Wrong shall fail,
    The Right prevail,
With peace on earth, good-will to men.”

But then, we have this one by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. He reminds us that we were awaiting the Prince of Peace. The whole reason for Christmas - Christ's arrival in human flesh. And now, we are waiting again for His return. Peace on earth. 

A Christmas Carol 
by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

The shepherds went their hasty way, 
And found the lowly stable-shed  
Where the Virgin-Mother lay:  
And now they checked their eager tread,  
For to the Babe, that at her bosom clung,
A Mother's song the Virgin-Mother sung.

They told her how a glorious light,
  Streaming from a heavenly throng.  
Around them shone, suspending night! 
 While sweeter than a mother's song,  
Blest Angels heralded the Savior's birth,  
Glory to God on high! and Peace on Earth.

She listened to the tale divine,  
And closer still the Babe she pressed:  
And while she cried, the Babe is mine!
The milk rushed faster to her breast:  
Joy rose within her, like a summer's morn;  
Peace, Peace on Earth! the Prince of Peace is born.

Thou Mother of the Prince of Peace,
  Poor, simple, and of low estate!  
That strife should vanish, battle cease,
O why should this thy soul elate?  
Sweet Music's loudest note, the Poet's story,
 Didst thou ne'er love to hear of fame and glory?

Then wisely is my soul elate,  
That strife should vanish, battle cease:
I'm poor and of low estate,
The Mother of the Prince of Peace.  
Joy rises in me, like a summer's morn:  
Peace, Peace on Earth! The Prince of Peace is born!

 

JOY! Joy at His arrival!  Pass it on to those around you! Peace on earth! Good-will toward men! Don't keep it to yourself!

  
For in the day of trouble he will keep me safe in his dwelling; he will hide me in the shelter of his sacred tent and set me high upon a rock. Then my head will be exalted above the enemies who surround me; at his sacred tent I will sacrifice with shouts of joy; I will sing and make music to the Lord. Hear my voice when I call, Lord; be merciful to me and answer me. – Psalm 27:5-7

 

Somehow, not only for Christmas,
But all the long year through,
The joy that you give to others
Is the joy that comes back to you;
And the more you spend in blessing
The poor and lonely and sad,
The more of your heart's possessing
Returns to make you glad.

--John Greenleaf Whittier

Even in the midst of trials and hardships, we need to find the tiniest of joys - and give them to others. God's Word says we are to count it ALL Joy.Joy doesn't have to cost money. Joy can be given freely.  Jesus gave it to us at no cost. Emmanuel. God with us. He came in human form to save us from ourselves. He took the punishment that we deserve every.single.day. and died....but rose from the grave. All for us. Count it ALL joy, my friends. 

When it all seems horrible and dark and despair runs amuck through your mind, remember: Fear NOT! Peace on earth (because of Him!),  Joy!

Merry Christmas!

Advent & Christmas 2013

I thought I should update this post for 2013 as some of the links have changed (or are dead) and we have changed up some different things for the last couple of years. Mind you, this is not a CM list of activities - just ones we have enjoyed over the years.

I just have to go buy our candles for our Advent wreath. I always seem to forget to do that each and every year. So, it is off to Hallmark tomorrow with hopes that they will have a set of tapered Advent candles, otherwise, I will buy individual little ones and work with that (which might be safer from little fingers anyway).

For myself, I am reading Ann Voscamps's The Greatest Gift: An Advent Devotional.
 
Print the 2013 Inductive Advent study. Print it now so you are ready for Sunday (or since I just updating this, uhm....so you are ready for tomorrow & can play catch-up).

Free ebook from Knowledge Quest - Figgy Pudding, Stollen and Tamales when you sign up for their newsletter (if, like me, you already receive their newletter, just enter your current email addy - you will still get it).  Plus, you will be helping them send gifts to the needy through Gospel for Asia!

We have a Jesse Tree from HERE. When we did it, we made it simple. I printed the sheets, colored in the pictures with pencils and laminated them. Perhaps, I will print them again and have my older 2 do something a bit more formal with them.  The place I meant to buy cross-stitch patterns for the ornaments went out of business, it seems. But, there seem to be no shortage of other ideas that you can purchase out there.

We have enjoyed reading Jotham's Journey, Bartholomew's Passage, & Tabitha's Travels. We are on our 2nd reading of Tabitha's Travels for this year.

Here are a couple of freebies that are also available:
Free Nativity Lapbook for younger children
Free Christmas Symbols lapbook

Free TOS Digital Holiday Supplement - lots of great stuff here for Thanksgiving & Christmas!
You can also email to ask for their newest (?) supplement here. The information how to ask for it is on the right hand page.

Homeschool Radio Shows has an offer for The Cinnamon Bear. 

From the Ambleside Online page we have a list of Christmas Carols and they are available in a printable PDF format, Christmas Poetry, and a list of Christmas books to read.

That and along with making a few Christmas presents for some people, cookies, lots of Christmas themed books, a Christmas concert at church, driving around to see the lights (love the displays downtown!), some old radio shows I purchased several year ago from Homeschool Radio Shows and hopefully, some caroling, we should have a fun, Christ-centered month leading up to Christmas.

I hope some of these are of help to you as well. Feel free to share some of your favorite resources in the comments.  Have a blessed Advent.

Christmas Bells by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Don't panic. Yes, it is the middle of October, not mid-December. But, if you have children performing things for Christmas at church, recitals, concerts, & the like, you have started hearing Christmas music being practiced in your home.

My oldest child had been practicing the Casting Crown version of I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day for a group at church. Sadly, that isn't going to happen now for various reasons (not because of her - ah, the accompanists life). However, the song has stuck with me and for whatever reason, it has resonated with my soul this year.

The history behind it Longfellow's poem Christmas Bells interesting and inspired by events in his life at the time. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow penned the words during the American Civil War (it was published in 1866).  Apparently, his son went to fight in the Civil War against his father's wishes and ended up being seriously wounded. Mr. Longfellow also lost his wife during this time period as well due to an accidental fire.

While we don't have cannons going off here in the USA (let's keep it that way - okay?), we do have much evil in the world and we are pummeled with it daily, via the media, to such an extent that we may often feel that, as Longfellow said in the poem,

"And in despair I bowed my head; 

“There is no peace on earth,” I said;

Yet, much like it says in the song My Father's World 

This is my Father's world.  
 O let me ne'er forget 
 that though the wrong seems oft so strong, 
 God is the ruler yet.  

Longfellow comes back and reiterates:

 Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
“God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
    The Wrong shall fail,
    The Right prevail,
With peace on earth, good-will to men.

While we won't have true Peace on Earth until Christ returns, we can look for the bits of peace and goodness out there in the world around us. We can continue to pray for peace and anxiously await his return.

So, while my daughter may not be playing the Casting Crowns version of Longfellow's poem on the piano this year, we will still be memorizing Longfellow's original poem this year as a family. I have put the words below (and they are going up on the whiteboard shortly in my house).


If you are not familiar with the Casting Crowns rendition, here is a (link) video with words of their song:

Christmas Bells

by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Their old, familiar carols play,
    And wild and sweet
    The words repeat
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

And thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
    Had rolled along
    The unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

Till ringing, singing on its way,
The world revolved from night to day,
    A voice, a chime,
    A chant sublime
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

Then from each black, accursed mouth
The cannon thundered in the South,
    And with the sound
    The carols drowned
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

It was as if an earthquake rent
The hearth-stones of a continent,
    And made forlorn
    The households born
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

And in despair I bowed my head;
“There is no peace on earth,” I said;
    “For hate is strong,
    And mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!”

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
“God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
    The Wrong shall fail,
    The Right prevail,
With peace on earth, good-will to men.”