UARTKNOWN

Have You Really Seen Christmas?

“Have you really seen Christmas?” my dear children asked, with joyful anticipation as they pounced in my lap.

“Why sure I have!”  I blurted out, ready to tell them with a joyful shout.

But then, I stopped and pondered deep the question they had asked.

“Have I really seen Christmas?” This troubled me…

For I’ve seen shadows of men walk desolate streets, tattered and torn, with no place to sleep.

While mothers stand in the hand out line, their frozen faces stuck in time.

And desperate children cling below, their short little lives who will know?

I’ve seen good men die a thousand deaths, weighed and measured with their last breath.

With loyalty and devotion they pass the test. But their wives, do they not cry and mourn and lay them to rest?

I’ve seen wars and wars and rumors of wars, tear nations into shreds.

While one man tears another down, verbally, until he’s all but dead.

I’ve seen shouts of anger and rage and lying and stealing

and hatred and murder and jealousy and…

Have I really seen Christmas? Yes my children, yes!

But not in the cold wintry snow listing gently through the sky,

Nor in the sweet spiraling perfume of Christmas pumpkin pie.

And not from the tree, the Christmas tree, trimmed in silver and gold.

Or the warm embrace of a friendly face, underneath the mistletoe.

Though the joyful expressions of little faces are especially dear upon this eve,

All of these are just the wrappings, of the Christmas that I’ve seen.

For I saw Christmas 2000 years past, when angels sang and shepherds gasped.

When the God of creation bestowed His Holy plan,

The Son, clothed in flesh and bone did come, and for us, became man.

And I saw Christmas when He lived His life, healing the sick and lame and blind.

Though evil men plotted and hated and scorned,

He continued in love and did not leave us unborn.

And I saw Christmas when they falsely accused, and whipped Him and beat Him til bloody and bruised.

The Crown of thorns they sunk in His head, as He slumped on the tree and hung until dead.

As the mountains trembled and the sinners did pray,

 I saw Christmas perfected,

on that day.

Yes my children, I’ve really seen Christmas, and I’ll see it one more time,

when the ills of mankind receive deaths blows,

and we leave our unholy  bodies below, and meet Him in the sky.

Now, your precious little faces shine bright in the night,

from the fireplace glowing and the tree and the lights.

The stockings are all hung and the candles are aglow,

but there is one last thing I want you to know.

If I speak of gifts, tis but one gift I will speak.

As God gave Jesus to me, It is Him,

to you my children,  I will leave.

Have You Really Seen Christmas

Verse 2

Have you really seen Christmas, have you looked into its eyes

Have you tread the Shepherds glorious path to hear the newborn's cries?

Doth angelic utterance still attend your ears, does your heart still rise up to meet?

Or is Glory to God all but lost to you, amidst the clatter

Of the vainglorious street

Come out! Come out! From your silver bells, and gilded memories of Kringled elves

Come out! Come out! From your whitewashed steeples, filled with tickled and itching people

For cold is the heart, the Shepherds journey does offend

O' don't you remember that luminous scene, when the Angelic chorus

Rang out through your fields once green?

Don't you remember?

Does its peaceful beam still endure in your mind, or is it lost to soul-less things

And clouded with age and time

Come now, all ye faithful, inspect your selves anew, have you left the Christ... for Christmas

And the simplicity of the Christ's story too?

I pray thee young and old, let me recount this story to you...

For away in a manger in the little town of Bethlehem

God's one and only Son appeared, the Savior of all men

He came upon a midnight clear, on that most glorious and Holy of nights

To put to death the sting of sin, and rescue men from deaths dark blight

In that bleak mid-winter, a glorious light had been unfurled

Its generous rays penetrated the cold cruel deep

To bring joy to the waiting world

Maybe you have missed it, amidst your clanging and caroling bells

But let the light of Christ shine in your heart tonight

While you still have time to sing your first noel

Then follow that glorious Shepherds path, the road is not so far

And humble yourself before the infant king

Lying 'neath the Bethlehem star

U.Art.Known