Deck Your Hearts with Boughs of Holly – Verse 2

Posted by on Dec 15, 2014 | 3 comments

Deck Your Hearts with Boughs of Holly – Verse 2

While recovering from hand surgery, I am re-posting some devotionals I wrote in 2011.

2MefromHim Devotional

“And the angel said unto them, ‘Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy,

which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior,

which is Christ the Lord.’” Luke 2:10-11

 

Often the luminarias on the church behind our house would burn all night long. For 14 years we had the gift of a beautiful, New Mexico Christmas display right outside our windows. Some of my favorite memories are of those years when our children were small, looking out at the beautiful sight as we read our children about the real “Yuletide treasure,” the Christmas story from the Bible, and tucked them into bed.

 

Once we were alone my husband and I could finish our preparations and sit down with a cup of tea, by the holly-draped tree to relax. There with “the blazing yule before us” we enjoyed the softly glowing lights of a New Mexico tradition which symbolize lighting the way of the Christ Child just outside. What a beautiful reminder!

 

Our Christmas Eve’s are usually filled with opportunities to “strike the harp and join the chorus” with fellow believers at church before heading out to look at lights and walk through Old Town. While driving around I invite everyone to “follow me in merry measure” as I sing the along with every Christmas song that comes on.

 

What “yuletide treasure” do you share with your family and friends as Christmas approaches? Is it the fun of The Night Before Christmas, or the moving story of the birth of Jesus Christ? Don’t get me wrong, we did our share of  reading the story of the “jolly old elf,” but our kids always knew that Jesus was real and the rest just a story.

 

A few years ago a friend lay dying all through the Christmas season. This year it is a friend of my son’s, twenty-five years old and facing imminent death. It brings everything into clearer focus as we realize that the birth of Jesus Christ is not something to only think about at Christmas, with a tree and nativity scene for decorations. It’s the whole point. Nothing else matters if you don’t get the real Christmas story right all year.

 

If you knew this was your last Christmas season, what would you need to know? What would you want your family and friends to know?

 

Choose to make the “Yuletide treasure” of the story of Jesus a gift to everyone you know—a gift which doesn’t end with the season but lasts a lifetime. Let your treasure be “the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger” who was to give His life on a cross at Easter that our sins might be forgiven.

 

© Copyright, Norma Gail Thurston Holtman, November 18, 2011 & September 16, 2014

 

About the author:

Norma Gail headshot rockhouse GoogleNorma Gail’s debut contemporary Christian romance, Land of My Dreams, set in Scotland and New Mexico released in April 2014. She is a former Bible Study Fellowship discussion leader who established the first weekly women’s Bible studies in her church in 2003 and continues to lead a weekly small group. Her devotionals, poetry have appeared at ChristianDevotions.us, the Stitches Thru Time blog, and in “The Secret Place.” She has led weekly women’s Bible studies for 19 years. She is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers, FaithWriters, and the New Mexico Christian Novelists. She is a former RN and homeschool/soccer mom who loves family research, history, and Scotland. Norma lives in the mountains of New Mexico with her husband of 38 years. They have two adult children.

 

www.normagail.org

https://www.facebook.com/AuthorNormaGail

https://plus.google.com/b/102717101441594679714/+Normagail/about/p/pubLand of My Dreams cover sm

http://pinterest.com/normagailth/boards/

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7874459.Norma_Gail

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/norma-gail-thurston-holtman/42/71a/3b2

https://twitter.com/Norma_Gail

 

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Land-My-Dreams-Norma-Gail/dp/1941103170/ or

Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/land-of-my-dreams-norma-gail/1119606864 ?ean=9781941103173

3 Comments

  1. If this was my last Christmas I would need to know who loved me #LandofMyDreams

    • Yes, that would be most comforting! Thanks for taking time to comment! I hope you have a very Merry Christmas!

  2. I would need to know that my family would be ok. I’d want them to know how much I love them and that, “It is well with my soul.”

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