Fear not

After Luke 2:10-14 

The presence is blinding,

a great light, not

the greatest light

but a lesser light, still

blinding in radiance,

proclaiming the light

of the good news,

the best news, this day

is born a Savior.

A sign is given,

a map, a guide:

a baby swaddled,

a baby lying in a manger.

The light, suddenly,

Joined by voices,

a host of heaven,

praising and proclaiming,

“Glory to God in the highest,

and on earth peace, good will

towards men with whom

he is pleased.”

The light vanishes, and

the shepherds tell themselves,

“Let us go to Bethlehem.”

 

Photograph by Casey Horner via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Friday Readings

 

What Does It Mean to be Made in God’s Image? – Ryan McGraw at Ligonier.

 

“That Holy Thing,” poem by George MacDonald – D.S. Martin at Kingdom Poets.

 

The Forgotten Value of Sacrifice – Marty Machowski at New Growth Press.

 

The Feast of St. Stephen – Elizabeth Sudlow at The Imaginative Conservative.

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.

I am Mephibosheth

After 2 Samuel 9:1-13 

I am Mephibosheth,

citizen of a fallen house,

a hose condemned,

a house consumed

by its own anger

and wrath, destroyed

by its own hand.

 

I am Mephibosheth,

crippled since birth,

son of the man who

loved his friend, who

sacrificed his own

position and rank and

his father’s favor.

 

I am Mephibosheth,

expecting to be killed,

desiring to die, instead

finding myself elevated,

and blessed.

 

Photograph by Intricate Explorer via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Sunday Readings

 

The Welcome – poem by Andrew Roycroft at New Grub Street.

 

“The House of Christmas,” poem by G. K. Chesterton – Joseph Bottum at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

An Advent Reflection: The Ox – Elizabeth Sudlow at The Imaginative Conservative.

What King Would Come Like This? The Surprising Advent of Jesus – David Mathis at Desiring God.

The Great Disconnect: When the Pulpit and the Pew Aren’t Speaking the Same Language – Tripp Fuller and Ryan Burge at Process This.

Saturday Good Reads - Dec. 20, 2025

This week saw the 250^th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth, and lots of people were writing lots of things about her, one even observing (correctly, I think) that she’s become a brand. One I found particularly interesting was, oddly enough, at The Gospel Coalition: “How a Christian Worldview Animates Jane Austen’s Fiction” by Deanna Rogers. 

One of the best-known, and best-loved, works by Dylan Thomas is A Child’s Christmas in Wales. Jeffrey Street ay the English Republic of Letters writes about how much of Christmas, as exemplified in the Dylan story, is about memory.

 

Charles Dickens, his career faltering, went out on a limb and spent money he didn’t really have to spend on a short novel in 1843. Jason Clark at This Is the Day explains how the work not only sold out in four days and revitalized Dickens’s career, but also transformed our understanding of Christmas.

 

Anthony Esolen at Word & Song has been explaining the origin and background of various Christmas hymns. This week, he looks at “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear” by Edmund Sears.

 

More Good Reads

 

America 250

 

The Pessimism of James Madison – Mark Malvasi at The Imaginative Conservative.

 

Robert Morris: Founding Father and Revolutionary Financier – Michael Aubrecht at Emerging Revolutionary War Era.

 

The Deadliest Seconds of the War – Dougles Dorney Jr. at the Journal of the American Revolution.

 

The Tea Rebellion: Boston’s Revolutionary Tax Revolt – Jason Clark at This Is the Day.

 

The History of America Can Be Told Through Christmas Trees – Meghan Bartels at Scientific American.

 

The Evolution of the American Declaration of Independence – Jane Sinden Spiegel at Journal of the American Revolution.

 

Poetry

 

“Noel,” poem by J.R.R. Tolkien – D.S. Martin at Kingdom Poets.

 

Once Round the Moon – poem by David Whyte.

 

Smelling Salts – poem by Jerry Barrett at Gerald the Writer.

 

British Stuff

 

On ‘location’ – Annie Whitehead at Casting Light upon the Shadow.

 

Writing and Literature

 

Should Everyone Write? – Peter Biles at Mere Orthodoxy.

 

The Comfortless Suffering of King Lear – Luke Fong at Front Porch Republic.

 

Why History Matters – Elizabeth Stice at Mere Orthodoxy reviews History Matters by David McCullough.

 

Faith

 

The Scopes Trial at 100: Fact, Fiction, and the Christian Historian – Nathan Finn at The Gospel Coalition.

 

Marketing as Stewardship – Nick Aumiller at Mere Orthodoxy.

 

The Rising Tide of Islam – Alan Schlemon at Stand to Reason.

 

You Are in the Circumstances in Which You Can Best Serve—Tim Challies.

The Ghost of Christmas Never – Samuel D. James at Digital Liturgies.

Life and Culture

 

Our terror model is obsolete – Emma Schubart at The Critic Magazine.

 

News Media

 

How the Media Shape Our Thinking – Christopher Rufo. 

 

Holy Forever (Christmas Version) – Jessie Harris and Gateway Worship

 

Painting: Woman Reading at Window, oil on canvas (1893) by Anna Sahlsten (1859-1931).