Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Come Home for Christmas

For many years, probably dating back to my late twenties, I have tried each year to write a Christmas poem that embraces the reason for the season. The poems have been short, long, epic, comical, serious, whimsical but most of all, celebratory in nature. After all, the Christmas season is about celebrating the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. I have written about this holy season from almost every vantage point…from the donkey that Mary rode upon to the little angel in charge of the Heavenly Host, announcing to the shepherds the birth of Jesus….but this year, in light of all that is taking place in our country and around the world, my vantage point is a little different.

So many of our families have their loved ones spread across the globe, standing in harm’s way as they defend the sacred values and ideals that we as Americans hold so dear. It is to these brave, courageous men (and women) that I would like to dedicate the following poem …it is my prayer that God will watch over, protect and defend and under His great mercy, provide safe passage home to many of our military men and women this Christmas season. I ask that each of us do something measured and on purpose that will signify to our armed forces the value and dignity we bestow upon them….MAY THE GOD OF AMERICA PROTECT EACH OF YOU AND ANSWER THE PRAYER OF YOUR HEART. MAY YOU BE HOME FOR CHRISTMAS WITH THE ONES YOU LOVE,
Amen.


Come Home for Christmas
It seems like many years ago that you went away
I was just a tiny tot that loved to run and play
But, Mom says that it was only about a year ago
When you were called to go to war…my, but time is slow.

I can’t believe that its time for Christmas once again
And you’re not here to celebrate with our family and friends;
To lift me on your shoulders; to place the star upon the tree;
To bounce me up and down on a bronco-buckin’ knee.

Today, we climbed into the attic with all the spiders, bugs and such
And Mom said I was really brave for helping out so much.
We gathered all the boxes of lights and Christmas stuff …
And that floppy-eared old hound dog that you and I named, “Ruff.”

Grandpop carried down the tree in that dusty old trash bag
And Mom started cleaning with her trusty dusting rag…
But, I was very quiet as I fought back all my tears
‘Cause Mom said you’re not coming home for Christmas this year.

Now, I know that you told me that I must try hard to be brave
‘Cause there were other kids just like me you had to go and save;
You had to go and fight in a war where valiant men would die
You told me to be “a brave soldier” and do my best not to cry.

Daddy, I’ve been trying to do just as you ask;
So I could kneel at my bedside with one simple task.
To pray that Jesus would keep you out of harm’s way
So He could send you home to us before Christmas Day.

Yes, I made this promise that I’m trying to keep;
That’s to pray for you every night until I fall asleep.
So I’ll obey all the grownups and do just what they say,
If Jesus will bring you back to us before Christmas Day.

I promise that I will be brave and not cry at all
If God will help my daddy and his men to stand tall;
To fight for all our freedoms and our American way
And let Daddy come home and celebrate this Christmas day.

I won’t ask Santa for anything even though I’ve been great,
If you’ll bring Daddy home to us not one minute late…
And so, dear God, if it’s okay to make one more request of you
Could you let all the other daddies come home for Christmas, too?

W. Patrick Queen
November 2009
P

Please feel free to share this with others you know….especially if they have a loved one in the military this Christmas season…May God Bless each of you as you reach out for Him….


WPQ

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

A BABY CHANGES EVERYTHING…

Today is a very special day in the life of my family for our daughter, Alyson, is twenty years old. Her youth is a precious gift and she is making the most of it. In fact, her wisdom and emotional experiences place her well beyond her years. As her immensely proud father, I can say without prejudice that she is one very exceptional young woman.

In fact, it was just this morning, with coffee in hand, that her mother and I took a walk down memory lane. I was quickly and pleasantly reminded of that age-old truth…A BABY CHANGES EVERYTHING!

I remember that during those long months of expectancy, I took a simple note card and in my rudimentary calligraphy wrote the following and placed it in Alyson’s crib….

COMING SOON…..ALYSON TAYLOR QUEEN.

As a father, expecting his first (and in my case, only child), I was filled with fear, trepidation and anxious moments as I anticipated this new arrival….would I be a good father? Would I know what to do and how to protect this small child? Would I, could I and should I filled my every thought, for as I have mentioned before….A BABY CHANGES EVERYTHING!

I’m sure that was true on that first Christmas night, two thousand plus years ago, as Mary and her betrothed husband unloaded the donkey and began to make a birthing bed for Mary. They probably waited in silence, huddled together to stave off the cold night air as they awaited the miracle of birth. The cattle stirred and the bleating sound of the sheep interrupted their thoughts of what had happened in days past ….and look where they were now…for we all know….

A BABY CHANGES EVERYTHING…..ESPECIALLY WHEN HE IS THE SON OF GOD!!!!

And now, in just a few more days (and 2,000 plus years later) the same is true….A BABY CHANGES EVERYTHING….for that was God’s intent all along. Through His prophet Isaiah, God foretold, “For unto us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” Isaiah 9:6

God came to us in a form and in a way that we could understand….He came as a baby and through His birth, His life, His death and His glorious resurrection, HE HAS CHANGED EVERYTHING. No longer is God mad at us, hell bent on our destruction because of our sin and disobedience….He has shown His great love for each of us because He sent His son…His only Son to take our place; to pay our debt; to forgive our sins; to cleanse us from all unrighteousness; to make us a new creation; to give us eternal life as a free gift from Him….and it all started with a baby.

It is my hope that you know the Christ-child of Christmas not only as the babe in the manger, but as the Christ on the cross. I pray that the babe of Bethlehem lives in your heart and is the Lord and Savior of your life. I trust that for you this baby, God’s son, is the BABY THAT CHANGES EVERYTHING FOR YOU.

If not, why not?

Don’t let another day go by without the acknowledgement that you need a savior. Accept today that the baby born to Mary and Joseph so very long ago is the baby that changes everything …and if you are willing to confess that He is Lord and that His death on the cross paid your sin debt, you will have eternal life… and that forever life in the presence of the Heavenly Father starts the moment you invite this baby into your heart.

Trust your heart to the babe, God’s Son, EMMANUEL….GOD IS WITH US!


Be Blessed and Know that He is God,

WPQ

Poem for the Day:

Christmas comes but once a year
And though it last but a single day;
When we give with open hearts
That Christmas feeling never goes away.

So in this special season
When love and joy abounds;
Remember that the Christ –child
From heaven did come down;

To give His life a ransom;
To save us from our sins.
For we shall live forever,
If Jesus lives within.

W. Patrick Queen 2011


Monday, December 19, 2011

Traditions…Our Treasures Shared

It is at this special season that many of us bring out some of our greatest treasures, as well as some of our most treasured traditions…..special ornaments that have been passed down through the family for generations; special holiday cookie or cake recipes that are loaded with all things fattening and lots of love; a time-honored gathering on Christmas morning to read the Christmas story before turning our attention to the mounds of presents under the tree.

Whatever your traditions …whatever your treasures…..they are always amplified in their meaning and symbolisms when they are shared with those you love most….so in the mindset of sharing one of my traditions, I give you a poem written for Christmas 2011.

For approximately the last 20 years, I have been writing a Christmas poem to share with my family and close friends….some years the message came quickly and with great ease; other years provided a true test of imagination and arduous effort; but nevertheless, God always provided me with a new thought of the Christmas celebration.

The following is my poem for the 2011 Christmas season….As I share this tradition with each of you, I pray that God will richly bless you and your family as we celebrate the birth of our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ.

Merry Christmas,
WPQ


The Heartbeat of Heaven

The hallowed halls of Heaven were quiet on that night
When the multitude of angels took off in heavenly flight;
Bound for earthly realms and there in one voice to sing
Their praises to the Christ-child….Heaven’s newborn King.

There was no celebration on that night so long ago
When the heartbeat of Heaven gave up His throne to go;
To save a lost and hopeless world; they hardly noticed then
That God had sent His only Son as ransom for our sin.

The cherubs were not gleeful; they each choked back their tears
For the heartbeat of Heaven would now be gone for years.
For as He took the form of man, the Creator now born a babe
This tiny child from Heaven now sent for all mankind to save.

To live a life of obedience; to answer the Father’s call….
Born that night in Bethlehem in a lowly cattle’s stall.
No trumpet sounds or blaring horns were there to greet His birth
As the heartbeat of Heaven silently came to earth.

For there in the manger lay Heaven’s righteous, Holy One
Born to a virgin so meek and mild ….God’s gift of His only Son;
A precious gift so freely given….sent from Heaven above;
A gift of God’s great mercy and His never-ending love.

So in this Christmas season, let us each rejoice and sing
Eternal hallelujahs to Jesus Christ, our King;
For the heartbeat of Heaven gave up His royal throne….
He gave his life as a sacrifice so we would never walk alone.


Walking with Jesus today…tomorrow…and forever!!!!!


W. Patrick Queen@ December 2011

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

The Man and the Birds

Each year at Christmas, I eagerly search across my radio dial trying to find the story of the Man and the Birds, as told my Paul Harvey. I find that in listening to that story, I am so wonderfully reminded of the love of God for each of us. On many occasions, I have been forced to pull off on the side of the road to listen to the conclusion of the story…it’s so hard to drive when your eyes are water-logged and leaking.

I hope and pray that during this Christmas season, you will have the wonderful opportunity to hear Mr. Harvey’s captivating telling of this timeless story…of Emmanuel, God with us. If not, then please read on and be forever blessed to know that the love of God was expressed…in human form…in a manager in Bethlehem…in a baby named JESUS.

The Man and the Birds by Paul Harvey:
The man to whom I'm going to introduce you was not a scrooge; he was a kind decent, mostly good man. He was generous to his family and always upright in his dealings with other men. But he just didn't believe all that incarnation stuff which the churches proclaim at Christmas Time. It just didn't make sense and he was too honest to pretend otherwise. He just couldn't swallow the Jesus Story, about God coming to Earth as a man.

"I'm truly sorry to distress you," he told his wife, "but I'm not going with you to church this Christmas Eve." He said he'd feel like a hypocrite. That he'd much rather just stay at home, but that he would wait up for them. And so he stayed and they went to the midnight service.

Shortly after the family drove away in the car, snow began to fall. He went to the window to watch the flurries getting heavier and heavier and then went back to his fireside chair and began to read his newspaper. Minutes later he was startled by a thudding sound...Then another, and then another. Sort of a thump or a thud...At first he thought someone must be throwing snowballs against his living room window. But when he went to the front door to investigate, he found a flock of birds huddled miserably in the snow. They'd been caught in the storm and, in a desperate search for shelter, had tried to fly through his large landscape window.

Well, he couldn't let the poor creatures lie there and freeze, so he remembered the barn where his children stabled their pony. That would provide a warm shelter, if he could direct the birds to it. Quickly he put on a coat, galoshes, tramped through the deepening snow to the barn. He opened the doors wide and turned on a light, but the birds did not come in. He figured food would entice them in. So he hurried back to the house, fetched bread crumbs, sprinkled them on the snow, making a trail to the yellow-lighted wide open doorway of the stable. But to his dismay, the birds ignored the bread crumbs, and continued to flap around helplessly in the snow. He tried catching them...He tried shooing them into the barn by walking around them waving his arms...Instead, they scattered in every direction, except into the warm, lighted barn.

And then, he realized that they were afraid of him. To them, he reasoned, I am a strange and terrifying creature. If only I could think of some way to let them know that they can trust me...That I am not trying to hurt them, but to help them… But how?....since any move he made tended to frighten them, confuse them. They just would not follow. They would not be led or shooed because they feared him.

"If only I could be a bird," he thought to himself, "and mingle with them and speak their language. Then I could tell them not to be afraid. Then I could show them the way to the safe, warm barn. But I would have to be one of them so they could see and hear and understand." At that moment the church bells began to ring. The sound reached his ears above the sounds of the wind. As he stood there listening to the bells ….listening to the bells pealing forth the glad tidings of Christmas, he understood …. And he sank to his knees in the snow.


I trust that this Christmas, when you hear those church bells ring or the sounds of carolers lifting their voices in praise to the newborn babe, you too, will understand the message of Christmas….Jesus Christ is born and God is forever with us!

Merry Christmas….Happy Birthday, Jesus!
WPQ

Thursday, December 8, 2011

Change ...for a Dollar?

Please take a moment, in this busy season as we all rush around with too mucn to do and to little time to do it, and spend the next ten minutes in front of your computer screen....I promise that if you view this entire video presentation, it will be the best ten minutes you have ever spent in front of your computer.

You WILL be blessed and it just might help you be a blessing to someone else in need this Christmas season....Christ said, " if you did it to one of the least of these, then you have done it unto me." Matthew 25:45

http://www.flickspire.com/m/share_this/ChangeForADollar#.Tt-WTEfA2Jo.mailto

May God's Hand of Mercy and Grace be extended through you and yours in this Christmas season.....

WPQ