Shepherds' surprise

After Luke 2:8-20 

Dozing in deepening night,

pulling cloaks closer

in the cold darkness,

 

suddenly,

 

the light so bright,

the sound so deafening,

shook them awake, and

a voice saying fear not.

The wise men had seen

a star and followed;

the shepherds had seen

a light, and were blinded,

had heard a voice, deafening,

and shocked to hear

of a birth.

 

The voice was joined

by a chorus of voices,

voices singling glory.

Then silence, and

darkness again.

 

They looked at each other,

faces etched in wonder,

light shining into hearts.

 

They left everything,

 

their camp, their sheep,

their possessions, and

raced to find the manger,

to find the child. 

 

To the parents, they said:

we were told,

and we found the light.

 

Illustration by Kingdom Formation Ministries.

I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day - Casting Crowns (via Henry Wadswoth Longfellow)

The Story Behind the Hymn - Hymncharts

Some Thursday Readings

 

Peace Child – Andrew Wilson at Think Theology.

 

What Does Christmas Feel Like?  and Songs That Feel Like Christmas – Michael Farmer at Front Porch Republic.

 

A Leprechaun for Christmas – short story at Dancing Priest.

 

Those Who Lie in Unvisited Tombs – Brian Sudlow at The Imaginative Conservative on the genealogy of Jesus.

 

A Tennessee Christmas Remembered – Biran Miller at Notes from an East Tennessee Farmer.

 

Another Ordinary, Holy Day – Andrea at A View of the Lake.

 

Adeste Fideles – poem by Andrew Roycroft at New Grub Street.

 

On Christmas Night in the City (London) – Spitalfields Life.

 

Ghosts of Christmas Past – Bow of Odysseus.

 

An Irish Christmas Selection Box 2025 – Seth Lewis.

 

Imagine the day

After Zephaniah 3:14-20 

Imagine the day

when judgments are removed,

when enemies are cleared away.

 

Imagine the day

when evil is banished,

when the Lord is in your midst.

 

Imagine the day

when the Lord rejoices over you,

when the Lord sings over you.

 

Imagine the day

when exclusion is dead,

when no one suffers reproach.

 

Imagine the day

when the lame are healed,

when the outcasts are gathered,

when all shame is expelled,

when your fame is sung by the Lord.

 

The day is coming.

Soon.

 

Photograph by Jonny Gios via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Noel -- Tommee Profitt

Some Wednesday Readings

 

Don’t Miss Jesus – Melissa Edgington at Your Mom Has a Blog.

 

Re-enchanting the World: The Mythic Power of Christmas – James Sale at The Epoch Times.

 

What is the Christian Holiday of Epiphany? – Dave Roos at History.

 

The First Christmas Tree – Alison Barnes at History Today.

 

Christmas with the Presidents – Jerry Newcombe at the Institute for Faith, Work, & Economics.

 

What’s the Matter with Ebenezer Scrooge? – Benjamin Myers at Front Porch Republic.

 

“The Oxen,” poem by Thomas Hardy – Joseph Bottum at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

The Anonymous Poem That Made Stockings America’s Christmas Obsession – Jason Clark at This Is the Day.

The messenger

After Malachi 3:1-4 

The messenger is coming,

sent by the Lord;

the messenger is sent

to prepare the way of the Lord

 

The messenger is coming,

in whom you delight;

the messenger of the covenant

is coming, says the Lord.

 

But who among us

can stand when he comes?

Who can endure the day

when he appears among us?

 

But he is coming;

the messenger is coming.

 

Photograph by Wonderlane via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Tuesday Readings

 

More than merely a magician with words – Michael Hurley at The Critic Magazine on a new biography of Alfred, Lord Tennyson.

 

Inhabiting the wide world – Padraig O Tuama on the poetry of Marie Howe.

 

For shadowment: Villanelle for the solstice – Angela Alaimo O’Donnell at The Christian Century.

 

Christmas, Whidbey Island. 1975 – Kelley Keller at Story Warren.

 

Violet Bick Gives Back the Money – poem by Megan Willome.

The promise

After Jeremiah 33:10-16 

The Lord will fulfill

his promise, the one

made to the house

of Judah, to the house

of Israel. The Lord

will raise a branch,

a righteous branch,

a branch who will

bring justice, who will

bring righteousness,

to the land.

 

Judah will be saved.

Jerusalem will be

Secured.

 

And the branch 

will be called

the Lord is our righteousness.

 

This time will pass.

This time is not forever.

This will become 

what it is designed

to be, the design

of the branch

of righteousness.

 

Photograph by Osama Khan via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Monday Readings

 

How God Used A Christmas Carol to Resurrect Literature in My Life – John Sommer at Story Warren.

 

Wonder Confronts Certainty, Then and Now – Gary Morson at Public Discourse.

 

The Real Christopher Lasch – Paul Baumann at Commonweal.

 

How the West Became Pagan –Again – Derek Rishmawy at The Gospel Coalition.

Well, I Guess It’s Christmas, men plow our roads, I remember Dad and Presents – Katie Andraskie at Katie’s Ground.

The Christmas Nobody Wanted

The Christmas issue of Cultivating Oaks Press is now online, and I have a short story, “The Christmas Nobody Wanted.” It includes essays, reflections, and even a recipe by Andrew Roycroft, Amelia Friedline, Annie Nardone, Junius Johnson, Matthew Clark, Adam Nettesheim, Marbieth Barber, Hillevi Anne Peterson, and several others.  

The theme of the issue is “Making Room to Receive,” and you can access all the posts here. 

 

Photograph by Jessica Fadel via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Thursday Readings

One of the main characters of my new novel Brookhaven has been a major admirer of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow since he was a child. It’s unusual, because the character is born and raised in Mississippi, and abolitionist Mr. Longfellow was not a popular poet. And Longfellow’s poems, in fact, play a not insignificant role throughout the entire book. 

We recently rewatched the Angel Films movie “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day,” which tells the story of Longfellow and his family during the Civil War, and how he came to write the poem that became the Christmas carol. The movie takes only minor liberties with the real story. Some years back, Meg Groeling at Emerging Civil War told that story, and it’s every bit as fascinating as the movie.

 

The Other Christmas Truce – Joanna Guldin at Military.com.

 

The Cross and the Machine – Paul Kingsnorth at The Free Press.

 

York Buildings Stairs and the Watergate – A London Inheritance.

 

The Bard at Christmas – Jaspreet Singh Boparai at The Critic Magazine.

 

Boat Prayer – Karla Van Vliet at Every Day Poems.

 

“In the Bleak Midwinter,” poem by Christina Rossetti – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

The First Noel – poem by Seth Lewis. 

 

Hell by the Acre: A Narrative History of the Stones River Campaign, November 1862-January1863 by Daniel Masters – review at Civil War Books and Authors.

 

Photograph: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow about 1860.

Some Christmas Readings – Dec. 25, 2024

The Darkness Does Not Win – Kevin DeYoung at Clearly Reformed. 

The Last Silent Night and the Silver-Haired Saints – Doug Spurling.

 

“Christ’s Nativity,” poem by Henry Vaughn – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

Christmas Carol – poem by Paul Laurence Dunbar at Kingdom Poets (D.S. Martin).

 

We Three Kings – Warren Peel at Gentle Reformation.

 

Centerpoint Poetry and Music for Christmas, via Jeff Johnson. 

 

Seven Surprises of the First Christmas – David Mathis at Desiring God. 

 

Are the Origins of Christmas Really Pagan? – Kenneth Calvert at Hillsdale College.

 

A Leprechaun for Christmas (Short Story) – Dancing Priest.

 

Christmas Oranges (Short Story) – Cultivating Oaks Press.

 

Three Christmas Sonnets – Phillip Whidden at Society of Classical Poets.

Jupiter Harmon's Christmas Poem - essay by Michael Curtis at Society of Classical Poets.

The Shop of Ghosts - short story by G.K. Chesterton at The Imaginative Conservative.

 

When All the Earth in Darkness Sleeps – Frank LaRocca & James Matthew Wilson

 Artwork: Star of the Night, etching (circa 1651) by Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669); St. Louis Art Museum.

Cultivating Christmas

The Christmas edition of Cultivating Oaks Press is online, and it contains a number of excellent posts and stories about the wonder of Christmas. I have one about losing and finding the wonder of Christmas when I was six years old (a long, long time ago).

You can read the entire issue here.

Books I’m Not Recommending for Christmas

It’s Christmas season, which means it’s time for my annual list of books I’m not recommending for Christmas. Chalk the title up to my sensitivity about giving and receiving books. It likely goes back to some childhood trauma when I received a book I was totally uninterested in. I would have been polite and said thank you, I was raised in the South, after all, but I would have been traumatized nonetheless. 

An alternative title might be “The Best Books I’ve Read This Year.” I read a lot of books, and I read a lot of good books, so I have to say up front I’m omitting some to keep the list (relatively) short. Some are books published this year; a few were published decades ago.

 

It was a good year for poetry. It was the year I discovered good graphic novels. I found some new authors and revisited some old ones. Note: Links are to my reviews.

 

Poetry

 

Spending the Winter: Poems by Joseph Bottum.

 

The Shield of Achilles by W.H. Auden.

 

Herman Melville: Battle Pieces & Aspects of the War.

 

Last Things, First Things, and Other Lost Causes: Poems by Joshua Hren.

 

The Grief Committee Minutes: Poems by Sarah Carey.

 

The Unfolding: Poems by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer.

 

Empty Me Full: Poems by Catherine Abbey Hodges.

 

Under the Pearl Moon: Poems by Rick Maxson.

 

House of 49 Doors: Poems by Laurie Klein.

 

Graphic Novels

 

The Colour Out of Space by H.P. Lovecraft and Sara Barkat.

 

The Mythmakers: The Remarkable Fellowship of C.S. Lewis & J.R.R. Tolkien by John Hendrix.

 

Mysteries

 

Sting of the Honey Bee by Roger Longrigg.

 

The Dark Wives by Ann Cleeves.

 

The Grey Wolf by Louise Penny.

 

A Saxon Shadow and A Stolen Shadow by H L Marsay.

 

In That Sleep of Death by Jonathan Dunsky.

 

In the Key of Death by Scott Hunter.

 

Death, Adjourned by Simon Michael.

 

Faith

 

The Storied Life by Jared Wilson.

 

In This Way We Came to Rome: With Paul on the Appian Way by Gene Thompson and Mark Wilson.

 

Art

 

Thunderclap: A memoir of art and life & sudden death by Laura Cummings.

 

Fiction

 

Hold Fast by Spencer K.M. Brown.

 

Works of Mercy and The Blackbird & Other Stories by Sally Thomas.

 

Clear by Carys Davies.

 

A World Lost and A Place on Earth by Wendell Berry.

 

Children’s Literature

 

The Sin Eater by Gary Schmidt.

 

Across Five Aprils by Irene Hunt.

 

History

 

The Gettysburg Reunion of 1913 by John Hopkins.

 

The Aleppo Codex by Matti Friedman.

 

Literary Criticism

 

Dickensland: The Curious History of Dickens’s London by Lee Jackson.

 

The History of the Hobbit by John Rateliff.

 

C.S. Lewis’s Oxford by Simon Horobin.

 

Top photograph by Olena Bohovyk via Unsplash. Used with permission.

"God Rest Ye Merry, Soldiers" by James McIvor

In 1861, the first year of the Civil War, soldiers on both sides still felt some sense of momentum. Overly optimistic, many believed the war would over by Christmas. As the war stretched into 1862, the initial optimism was giving way to something else – a sense of failure and despair. And that sense affected both sides.  

The South was beginning to feel the bite of the Union blockade of Southern ports. The North was watching a series of what seemed like only Confederate victories on the battlefield. Soldiers were becoming demoralized. It didn’t help the Union’s cause that so many senior officers were “political generals” and appeared sorely lacking in experience and common sense. The sense of failure and isolation was especially acute around Christmas, when soldiers would have ordinarily been home with their families.

To continue reading, please see my post today at Dancing Priest.

Some Wednesday Readings

 

Manchester, New Hampshire Civil War Monument – Patrick Young at The Reconstruction Era.

 

A State Divided: A New Book Featuring 50 Previously-Unpublished Civil War Letters Provides Insights on Why Many Believe the Civil War Started in Missouri – Tonya McQuade at Emerging Civil War.

Some Tuesday Readings - Dec. 26, 2023

The Journey of the Three Wise Men – Douglas Murray at The Free Press. 

Our godless era is dead – Paul Kingsnorth at UnHerd.

 

Heartbeats at Christmas – Jacob Phillips at The Critic Magazine.

 

Mosaic of the Nativity: Serbia, Winter 1993 – poem by Jane Kenyon at Kingdom Poets (D.S. Martin).

 

Ruddy Glory: The Resonance of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer – Joel Kurz at Front Porch Republic.

 

The Ultimate Christmas Gift – poem by Susan Jarvis Bryant at Society of Classical Poets.

 

The Ghosts of Old London – Spitalfields Life.

 

Photograph: Entrance to the Oxford Arms, from “The Ghosts of Old London.”

The gift

After Hebrews 1:1-4 

The best of all gifts,

one unmerited and

undeserved, one

given in joy and love.

 

And more.

 

This gift is unlike

any that have come

before, not only

a gift of voice but

also a gift of self.

 

And more.

 

The gift is the heir,

given by the master

of the manor, the son

given to take our place,

the one there 

from the beginning.

 

And more.

 

Photograph by Dev Benjamin via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Monday Readings

 

Who is This One Lying in a Manger? – Geoff Thomas at Evangelical Magazine.

 

Why Such a Lowly Birth? – Justin Huffman. 

 

The Best Christmas Deal Ever – David Deavel at The Imaginative Conservative.

 

Midwinter – a Christmas poem by Martin Rizley at Society of Classical Poets.

 

Two Classic Poems for Christmas from Eliot and Chesterton – The Rabbit Room.

 

In the fog, there are tidings of comfort and joy – Jacob Duesing at Baptist News.

 

The Robin’s Christmas – Spitalfields Life.

 

Saturday Good Reads - Dec. 24, 2022

Good literature can be informative and entertaining, but it can also give you insights into the current moment, even if the literature in question is more than 150 years old. Timothy Noah at The New Republic writes about Sam Bankman-Fried, he of the FTX crypto-currency scandal, and how Charles Dickens had his number.  

Did you know that actor Paul Newman wrote poetry? You can read one of his poems, and a bit of the backstory, at The Nation.

 

Dan Doriani is a professor of theology at Covenant Theological Seminary here in St. Louis. Before that, he was the pastor at our church. In an article for Crossway, he considers the nativity story, and takes a look at the magi. Who were they, and why did they worship Jesus?

 

Merry Christmas to all, and God bless us, every one!

 

More Good Reads

 

Life and Culture

 

How race politics liberated the elites – Matthew Crawford at UnHerd.

 

C.S. Lewis’ “Old Western Men” – Bradley Birzer at The Imaginative Conservative. 

 

Faith

 

Melchizedek & the Loins – Matthew Hosier at Think Theology.

 

A Gentle Reformation Update – Barry York at Gentle Reformation.

 

A Christmas Selection Box – Seth Lewis.

 

What Your Nativity Really Means – Pierce Taylor Hibbs at Westminster Magazine.

 

Poetry

 

Noel: Christmas Eve 1913 – Robert Bridges at Kingdom Poets (D.S. Martin).

 

All the Ways You Can Stay – Wall Chamberlain at Front Porch Republic.

 

Dig It Up Again: A century of The Waste Land – Ryan Ruby at Poetry Foundation.

 

On Bosch’s ‘The Garden of Earthly Delights’ Triptych – Jeffrey Essman at Society of Classical Poets.

 

Three Poems by Robert Walser, translated by Daniele Pantano – at Literary Hub.

 

Music

 

Heaven and Nature Sing: Handel’s Messiah – Jeffrey Gedmin at American Purpose.

 

Ukraine

 

Video: Caught on Camera, Traced by Phone: The Russian Military Unit That Killed Dozens in Bucha – The New York Times.

 

British Stuff

 

The twilight of British Christianity? In the dimness of the secular gloom, the Christmas message shines brightly – The Critic Magazine.

 

Artúr mac Áedáin of Dál Riata and his time – Marco Mazzi at English Historical Fiction Authors.

 

Writing and Literature

 

Charles Dickens partied HARD after finishing A Christmas Carol in just six weeks – Jonny Diamond at Literary Hub.

 

American Stuff

 

1862 Christmas: “Despite the Present Distress” – Sarah Kay Bierle at Emerging Civil War.

 

O Holy Night – Josh Groban

 Painting: Old Man Reading a Book, oil on canvas by Joseph Malachy Kavanagh (1856-1918).