A BABY CHANGES EVERYTHING

In just a few days, on December 20th, my wife and I will celebrate  the 32nd birthday of our daughter, Alyson…and as her mother and I took a moment to walk down memory lane, I was 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 stirring 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, as another Christmas eve draws near (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 does the notion that God is mad at us hold water...that He is 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 your 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:

Born that night in a cattle stall,

This one babe to die for all...

God's most precious gift was born

In a manger laid on Christmas morn.

Shepherds and Angels announced His birth

Glory to God...Peace on the Earth.

And with the Wisemen let us bring

Our precious gifts to Christ the King.

In each heart may the Savior's reign

Fill the skies and the lowest plains;

With our praise and everlasting joy

And all because of Mary's baby boy.

 

W. Patrick Queen @ December 2015

 

 

The Timeless Story of Christmas

I remember the first time I ever heard the story that follows. I was driving in my car in the mountains of northeast Georgia. I remember being moved to tears as Paul Harvey, in his most eloquent manner, told this story. In fact, my eyes were filling with tears so much I had to pullover or run the risk of driving down the side of a mountain. Yet, even today, as I reprint this wonderful Christmas story, I am forever reminded of God's great love for you and me...and for the sacrifice that Jesus made to come to earth as a baby, die on a cross and then be raised to new life  so that one day, ALL WHO BELIEVE IN THE MATCHLESS NAME OF JESUS AND THE WORK ACCOMPLISHED ON THAT CROSS WILL LIFE WITH HIM...FOREVER!!!!

So enjoy this story and the little poem that follows and when given the chance this holiday season, wish all you know a MERRY CHRISTMAS...FOR CHRIST IS THE REASON FOR THIS SEASON!!!!

A reprint of my former blog begins with The Man and the Birds...A Christmas Story  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 living room window.

Well, he couldn't let the poor creatures lie there and freeze, so he thought of the barn where his children stabled their pony; surely 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 whistling 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  Emmanuel.....GOD IS FOREVER WITH US!!!

Merry Christmas….Happy Birthday, Jesus!
WPQ

The Truth of Christmas

 Many stories have been told

Of that night so long ago;

When the shepherds left their flocks

And to Bethlehem did go...

There to find a tiny babe

And a maiden so young and fair.

They could not fully understand

It was God who was lying there. 

The babe was wrapped in swaddling clothes,

Yet, no crying did he make;

And the message of the angels

To the silent town they'd take.

So all who they encountered

Would know that on this wondrous night;

The King of Heaven had come to earth

And  darkness was expelled by the LIGHT....

 

AND THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD IS JESUS!!!!!

 

W. Patrick Queen © December 2019

O Tannenbaum, O Perfect Tree…

The  following is a reprint of this post, but it definitely bears repeating....please share as God leads!

This past Friday was one of the best days of the entire Christmas season at the home of the Queens...it was the day we get our Christmas tree. Now, typically, it used to be that our entire family of three piled into the car and took off to a nearby tree lot…or in our days of living in the Georgia Mountains, we would drive up to Franklin, NC to a tree farm and there, cut down the tree of our choice.

But times, they are a changing. This past Friday, our daughter headed for school and though my wife had the day off, she had a “to-do” list a mile long; so that left me to make the trip to the nearby feed and seed store to pick out the “perfect” Christmas tree. I guess, after 20 years of instruction, my wife was confident that I could do this on my own.

So, there I stood, overwhelmed with the selection of over a hundred trees of all sizes, species and prices. I made my way up and down the rows of trees and when I finally got into the area that fit our budget, I began the painstaking process of standing up each tree, shaking it so the limbs would fall out and turning it around to see its good and bad side.

As I spent time alone in the tree yard, I began to hum that old Christmas song, O Tannenbaum, O Tannenbaum as I carefully surveyed each potential candidate for service in our living room. I remembered my childhood and the times I spent with my Dad as we diligently sought to find the “perfect tree” that would make our Christmas a true holiday celebration of love and joy. I thought of the words in the last verse of the song that says,

 O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree, in plainness you were growing

Until we came and brought you here and set your branches glowing.

Your living beauty helps us see how clothed in Christ our lives should be.

O Christmas, O Christmas tree; you lift our eyes toward heaven.

 As I paid the attendant and loaded the tree in the back of my wife’s SUV, I thought that my work was almost done….I would get the tree home, cut the lower branches and set it into the tree stand and then bring it inside our home to its final resting place. Then, sometime, later in the day, my lovely wife and beautiful daughter would begin to adorn this tree with all the memories and treasured ornaments that have become an integral part of our holiday traditions and celebrations…..and with a little help from the foremen of decorating (that’s me), our tree would come to life …it would become the PERFECT TREE. But, for some reason, I could not shake the tune that kept running around in my mind….O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree. How lovely are thy branches? This has been a tough year in our home, as I am sure it has been for many of you…but don’t get caught up in the mentality that everything has to be perfect or Christmas will somehow be diminished….rather, this year, as you prepare to buy and decorate your Christmas tree; take a moment to see this symbol of Christmas as a gift from the Father of lights that reminds us of the perfect gift from heaven….JESUS CHRIST….THE REASON FOR THE SEASON;     FOR HE CAME AS A BABE ….TO DIE ON A TREE…. SO THAT WE WOULD FOREVER BE WITH HIM… O Tannenbaum, O Perfect Tree …..The one Christ bore to Calvary. 

This Christmas keep…..

Looking toward heaven….remembering Christ and His great gift,

WPQ

This poem was written 18 years ago, but its message has never been more relevant that at this time in our culture. May God Bless this little poem and bring it to life in the lives of those who call Jesus... Lord & Savior!

The Perfect Tree

High upon a lonely hill, above the town below

Wintry winds begin to swirl...the snow began to blow.

Trudging through the wintry mix, each step measured like the other,

Walking with my Mom and Dad, my two sisters and my brother.

Off on our yearly conquest to find the perfect tree,

To decorate for Christmas...in one week, it would be.

A time of excitement, of laughter and jubilation,

A special time that makes Christmas such a joyous celebration.

'Twas there upon that precipice stood a tree so small

That everyone overlooked it; because it was not tall.

Its branches looked like matchsticks; its tiny, barren limbs

Barely felt the winter's cold that encircled them.

 Standing so straight like a sentry stands his guard

All alone to keep his watch upon this vacant yard.

My family, they marched onward; but I...I stopped to see

This tiny miracle of God...this sparse unproven tree.

I pleaded with my Mom and Dad, "Let's take this little tree!

I know it doesn't look like much, but imagine its possibilities..."

A row of lights, some shiny balls; the tinsel placed just right.

It would be the center of attention on that very special night.

For I'm sure that the shepherds, and quite possibly the wise men too

Wondered about a tiny child and what he would someday do;

To set God's people free from sin; to fill those he met with grace...

For those who gazed on the manger's babe had seen the Father's face.

So, in each Christmas season, remember that the perfect tree

Is the one they made into the Cross of Christ…

The one He bore to Calvary.

For the real story of each Christmas Season

Has special meaning for you and me

When we understand our Father's Love and remember

The Perfect Tree!

 

W. Patrick Queen @ Christmas 2000