CHRISTMAS
See also: Incarnation
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.
The Bible, Luke 2:14
My husband likes those nativity cards, but I prefer something more Christmassy.
Conversation overheard in a charity shop.
Author unknown
Selfishness makes Christmas a burden; love makes it a delight.
Author unknown
Bethlehem and Golgotha, the Manger and the Cross, the birth and the death, must always be seen together.
J. Sidlow Baxter
It is good to be children sometimes, and never better than at Christmas, when its mighty Founder was a child Himself.
Charles Dickens
The shepherds sing; and shall I silent be?
My God, no hymn for Thee?
My soul’s a shepherd too: a flock it feeds
Of thoughts, and words, and deeds.
The pasture is Thy Word, the streams, Thy
Grace
Enriching all the place.
Shepherd and flock shall sing, and all my
powers
Out-sing the daylight hours.
George Herbert
When we celebrate Christmas we are celebrating that amazing time when the Word that shouted all the galaxies into being, limited all power, and for love of us came to us in the powerless body of a human baby.
Madeline L’Engle
Ah, we poor people, to be so cold and sluggish in the face of the great joy that has clearly been prepared for us! This great benefaction exceeds by far all the other works of creation; and yet our faith in it is found to be so weak, although it is preached and sung to us by angels, who are heavenly theologians and who were so glad for our sake! Their song is very, very beautiful and describes the entire Christian religion. For giving glory to God in the highest heaven is the supreme worship. This they wish and bring to us in the Christ.
Martin Luther
The Christmas message is that there is hope for a ruined humanity – hope of pardon, hope of peace with God, hope of glory – because at the Father’s will Jesus Christ became poor, and was born in a stable so that thirty years later He might hang on a cross.
J.I. Packer
What can I give him,
Poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd,
I would bring a lamb,
If I were a Wise Man,
I would do my part –
Yet what can I give Him?
Give my heart.
Christina Rossetti
Where is this stupendous stranger?
Prophets, shepherds, kings, advise;
Lead me to my Master’s manger,
Show me where my Savior lies.
O most mighty, O most holy,
Far beyond the seraph’s thought,
Art thou then so mean and lowly
As unheeded prophets taught?
O the magnitude of meekness,
Worth from worth immortal sprang,
O the strength of infant weakness,
If eternal is so young.
God all-bounteous, all creative,
Whom no ills from good dissuade,
Is incarnate, and a native
Of the very world he made.
Christopher Smart
The birth of Jesus is the sunrise in the Bible.
Henry Van Dyke
The King of glory sends his Son,
To make his entrance on this earth;
Behold the midnight bright as noon,
And heav’nly hosts declare his birth!
About the young Redeemer’s head,
What wonders, and what glories meet!
An unknown star arose, and led
The eastern sages to his feet.
Simeon and Anna both conspire
The infant Savior to proclaim
Inward they felt the sacred fire,
And bless’d the babe, and own’d his name.
Let pagan hordes blaspheme aloud,
And treat the holy child with scorn;
Our souls adore th’ eternal God
Who condescended to be born.
Isaac Watts
To perceive Christmas through its wrapping becomes more difficult every year.
E.B. White