Saturday, November 30, 2024

Bittersweet Christmas by Jill Krueger Wagner

 Originally written for nursing home residents I was visiting.

Bittersweet Christmas – they’re not what they used to be

When our children woke with excitement & faces shone with glee

When we were young & our bodies responded as they should

We’d laugh & joke & plan the day knowing it would be good

These days there’s not much shopping we can do at our age,

Even if our legs could stand the walking, we no longer make a wage.

So, frustrations mount as we look back to Christmases gone by.

We fret & stew & reminisce but most of all, we cry;

It’s hard to fight the sorrow that persists as Christmas nears.

When all about seem cheerful but we find ourselves in tears

Then early one morning as I pray, I hear a still quiet voice say:

 

“Bittersweet Christmas? Why should this be?

I can tell you’ve taken your eyes off of me.

This season is not for worshipping you

And all the old holidays you knew.

This day is for me, come as a babe,

Humbling myself so you could be saved.

When sorrow overtakes you, it’s our old enemy

Trying to keep you from worshipping me.

Don’t give into self-pity but instead raise your voice

Glorify me by making this choice:

Choose to be happy for what I did that day,

Leaving my throne in heaven for a manger full of hay.

It was no small sacrifice to become a baby there

When I made the universe, everything everywhere.

And why should I, the God divine, humble myself so?

So you & every believer could overcome the foe.

Yet here you are forlorn, forgetting all I’ve done

Worshipping old earthly things, when your salvation has been won

And no small price did I pay to reconcile you to the Father,

So, this Christmas sing my praises – you may not have another!”

 

Lord, forgive me for my selfishness, I really didn’t see

This day is not for us, but instead to glorify thee

I vow it won’t be bittersweet, but the happiest one yet

And I’ll concentrate on giving joy & not on what I’ll get

I’ll look for those who need cheering & perhaps in that way

I’ll REALLY keep Christmas as a truly Christ- centered day.

 

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