prince of peace.

A major theme of the Christmas season is peace on earth. For whatever your reason, what do you consider the most peaceful place on earth?

I have a couple. My parents’ house is always a peaceful, comforting place to me. I also feel really peaceful when I’m just sitting in a cathedral.

Christmas is called a time of peace. People talk about it. You’ve probably seen doves or other kinds of peace symbols on Christmas cards. But what most people don’t talk about is why this is a season of peace.

When the angels announced Jesus’ birth, they sang, “Peace on earth!” because one of the names for the promised Savior was the “Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6). They were proclaiming that Peace had now come to rule on earth! Many people thought that meant that as soon as the Messiah came, He would “protect all the good guys and get rid of all the bad guys (or maybe throw them in jail)” like some kind of cartoon super hero! But Jesus came to bring a different kind of peace. He gives us a peace that stays with us no matter what. God’s kind of peace fills your heart and makes you feel loved. It is a peace that only God can give and there is nothing else that can take its place.

Many people try to fill that place with something else. Do you know kids who are angry and bully other kids? They are trying to fill that place with power. Some kids try to fill that place with friends, or food, or lots of toys and clothes. They are trying to fill that place with acceptance. Other kids try to fill that God-shaped place with something good like getting good grades, or being helpful. But even if you try filling that place in your heart with good things, it will be like using the wrong key in a lock. It can never open the door to God’s peace, and will never make you completely happy, because you have tried to fill it with something that doesn’t fit right.

Have you ever tried to open a door with the wrong key? It might look like the right key. It might even go into the lock. But when you try to turn it and open the door, nothing happens. That is what it’s like when we try to fill our hearts with something other than God: we become frustrated, unhappy, and upset. But when we fill our hearts with the Lord, we find peace.

Jesus said, “In Me you may have peace. In the world you will have hard things happen to you; but be of good cheer, I have conquered the world” (John 16:33).

That means that no matter what difficult situation we face, we can have peace. If you aren’t facing something hard right now, thank the Lord. But if you are, ask the Lord to help you, and remember: no matter what you face, the Prince of Peace is right there with you.

–The 25 Days of Christmas by Rebecca Hayford Bauer

the rosebush.

If this Christmas you could be instantly transported to London’s St. Paul’s Cathedral to hear any one musical work of composition, what would you most want to hear? (It needn’t have a Christmas theme.)

I think I have to say Serenade for Strings by Tchaikovsky.

This is one of my most favorite Christmas carols.

When the right time came God sent His son to buy freedom for us. Now you are no longer a slave but God’s own child and everything he has belongs to you.

-Galatians 4:4-5, 7

Today I have a story for you. Benjamin Bear opens a door on his Advent calendar to find a new picture each day. His mother tells him a story each day about a little bear who follows a shining star to Bethlehem to see the Christ Child.

Benjamin opened the next door and found a rosebush.

That night the snowflakes fell like gigantic stars. With tremendous effort, the little bear fought his way through the deep snow. His fur was wet, and he shivered. The little bear sank deeper and deeper into the snow. In front of him lay a little clearing. He squinted and saw something sparkling just ahead. The little bear bent down. He could hardly believe his eyes. In the middle of winter a rose was blooming! The ice crystals sparkled and glistened on its leaves.

It is so beautiful, thought the little bear. I will dig it out and bring it to the Child! His little paws scraped away the snow. He dug his claws into the frost-hardened earth until they were dull. Finally he was able to pull out the rosebush by its roots. He pressed the rosebush, stiff with frost, against his chest and warmed it.

Just then, a flock of birds flew by and began to sing. And, as if it were already spring, the rose released its sweet scent into the woods.

“A rose blowing in winter! That must have been wonderful to see,” said Benjamin.

Mother Bear nodded. “Always remember,” she said,” God’s love can warm and brighten the coldest, darkest night.”

-Advent Storybook: 24 Stories to Share Before Christmas by Antonie Schneider

redeeming all brokenness.

If you were to open up a cozy, little Christmas shop, what Christmas product would be your main draw?

I would want to sell lots of different Nativity sets.

As we move into Advent we are called to listen, something we seldom take time to do in this frenetic world of over-activity. But waiting for birth, waiting for death – these are listening times, when the normal distractions of life have lost their power to take us away from God’s call to center in Christ.

During Advent we are traditionally called to contemplate death, judgment, hell and heaven. To give birth to a baby is also a kind of death – death to the incredible intimacy of carrying a child, death to old ways of life and birth into new – and it is as strange for the parents as for the baby. Judgment: John of the Cross says that in the evening of life we shall be judged on love; not on our accomplishments, not on our successes and failures in the worldly sense, but solely on love.

Once again, as happened during the past nearly two thousand years, predictions are being made of the time of this Second Coming, which, Jesus emphasized, “even the angels in heaven do not know.” But we human creatures, who are “a little lower than the angels,” too frequently try to set ourselves above them with our predictions and our arrogant assumption of knowledge which God hid even from the angels. Advent is not a time to declare, but to listen, to listen to whatever God may want to tell us through the singing of the stars, the quickening of a baby, the gallantry of a dying man.

Listen. Quietly. Humbly. Without arrogance.

In the first verse of Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring, we sing, “Word of God, our flesh that fashioned with the fire of life impassioned,” and the marvelous mystery of incarnation shines. “Because in the mystery of the Word made flesh,” goes one of my favorite propers, for it is indeed the mystery by which we live, give birth, watch death.

When the Second Person of the Trinity entered the virgin’s womb and prepared to be born as a human baby (a particular baby, Jesus of Nazareth), his death was inevitable.

It is only after we have been enabled to say, “Be it unto me according to your Word,” that we can accept the paradoxes of Christianity. Christ comes to live with us, bringing an incredible promise of God’s love, but never are we promised that there will be no pain, no suffering, no death, but rather that these very griefs are the road to love and eternal life.

In Advent we prepare for the coming of all Love, that love which will redeem all the brokenness, wrongness, and hardnesses of heart which have afflicted us.’

–Miracle on 10^th Street: And Other Christmas Writings by Madeleine L’Engle

aslan is on the move.

What is your favorite Christmas scent?

I love the smell of Mom’s coffee cake on Christmas morning.

Today I want to share with you an excerpt from The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis.

“Didn’t I tell you,” answered Mr. Beaver, “that she’d made it always winter and never Christmas? Didn’t I tell you? Well just come and see!”

And then they were all at the top and did see.

It was a sledge, and it was reindeer with bells on their harnesses. But they were far bigger than the Witch’s reindeer, and they were not white but brown. And on the sledge sat a person whom everyone knew the moment they set eyes on him. He was a huge man in a bright red robe (bright as hollyberries) with a hood that had fur inside it and a great white beard that fell like a foamy waterfall over his chest. Everyone knew him because, though you see people of his sort only in Narnia, you see pictures of them and hear them talked about even in our world – the world on this side of the wardrobe door. But when you really see them in Narnia it is rather different. Some of the pictures of Father Christmas in our world make him look only funny and jolly. But now that the children actually stood looking at him they didn’t find it quite like that. He was so big, and so glad, and so real, that they all became quite still. They felt very glad, but also solemn.

“I’ve come at last,” said he. “She has kept me out for a long time, but I have got in at last. Aslan is on the move. The Witch’s magic is weakening.”

And Lucy felt running through her that deep shiver of gladness which you only get if you are being solemn and still.

I love that all that it takes for Narnia to be changed is for Aslan to be on the move. The slightest movement from Aslan weakens the Witch’s power and ends the one hundred years of winter without Christmas. In the same way, all that is needed for our world to be revolutionized is the tiniest movement of God. He is so much greater than us that his smallest workings can utterly transform us.

the risk of birth.

If you could indulge in only one type of cookie this holiday season, which cookie would you be eating a lot of?

This question is really tough since we have so many amazing cookie recipes in the Bennett household, but I think I would have to stick with Lemon-Cheese Logs.

“This is no time for a child to be born,

With the earth betrayed by war and hate

And a comet slashing the sky to warn

That time runs out and the sun burns late.

That was no time for a child to be born,

In a land in the crushing grip of Rome;

Honour and truth were trampled by scorn –

Yet here did the Saviour make his home.

When is the time for love to be born?

The inn is full on the planet earth,

And by a comet the sky is torn –

Yet Love still takes the risk of birth.”

-Madeleine L’Engle

Today I want to continue the story of Jesus’ birth according to the gospel of Matthew.

After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him.” When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teacher of the law, he asked them where the Christ was to be born. “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written: ‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will be the shepherd of my people Israel.’” Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and make a careful search for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.” After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshipped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.

-Matthew 2:1-12

I am always amazed that the Magi dropped everything to simply follow a star. They had the kind of faith that completely changed their lives. They believed that following that star was worth more than anything else in their lives, and they didn’t rest until they found what they sought. And then, after they had found Jesus, they had even more faith to let a dream direct them. I want to have that kind of faith in my life.

what can we give him?

If you were creating the ultimate gingerbread house, what unique features would it have?

My gingerbread house would have an eggnog moat with a peppermint bark bridge.

What mattered to Jesus was what went on in our hearts. What mattered was that we be right with God. What mattered was forgiveness, God’s loving forgiveness of us, and our forgiveness for each other. Jesus was not attracted by people who were more worried about other people’s sins (the mote in the eye, that stone in the hand) than their own love of God.

– Bright Evening Star by Madeleine L’Engle

What a relief it is that Jesus is most concerned with our hearts. Even when we make mistakes, he can see the motives behind our actions and forgive us for our sinful nature. Not only can he see what is in our hearts, he loves what he sees! I love this poem by Christina Rossetti – what better gift can we give him than our hearts?

Our God, Heaven cannot hold Him

Nor earth sustain;

Heaven and earth shall flee away

When He comes to reign:

In the bleak mid-winter

A stable-place sufficed

The Lord God Almighty

Jesus Christ.

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 I can I give Him,

I’ll give Him my heart.

sing we now of christmas.

Out of all the musical instruments, which one do you think is the most appropriate for the Christmas season?

I think the harp is nice for Christmas.

A group of carolers went forth to carol. And, as they caroled, some carols were lost on the evening air and simply disappeared in the night. And some fell on stony ears, and as soon as they were heard, they were forgotten. And some were caught up in the general noise of the street, which at times rose up and overpowered them. And other carols went straight to their mark and gladdened the hearts of those who heard them, so that they were hummed and repeated hundreds of times as these persons went about during the Christmas season. Whoever can understand this should give thanks for carols!

–Parables for Christmas by John Killinger

On Christmas Eve in 1818, a certain German priest named Father Joseph Mohr and his organist, Franz Gruber, were struggling to repair their broken organ before the traditional Midnight Mass. After a final hopeless examination of the instrument by Gruber, Mohr set out to make several pastoral visits. On one of these visits, Mohr had the opportunity to bless a new baby. As he was returning to the church, he considered the contrast between this baby and the Christ Child who was born on this same night so many centuries ago. He was suddenly inspired to write a poem entitled “Stille Nacht,” or “Silent Night.”

Silent night, holy night, all is calm, all is bright;

Round yon Virgin Mother and Child, Holy Infant so tender and mild,

Sleep in heavenly peace, sleep in heavenly peace.

At the church, Mohr asked Gruber to compose a melody for the poem. Since Gruber was an organist and the only available instrument was a guitar, Gruber created the melody based on the only three guitar chords that he knew. At midnight, Gruber played the simple chords on the guitar, and the two men sang the beautiful melody for the congregation.

When the organ builder, Karl Mauracher, finally came to repair the broken organ, Gruber played the carol for him. Maraucher took a manuscript of “Stille Nacht” with him and later introduced it to the four Strasser children. They sang the song so beautifully that it became known as “The Song From Heaven.” The Director-General of Music of the Kingdom of Saxony, Mr. Pohlenz, heard the Strassers sing and invited the children to perform for the King and Queen. The carol was further promoted by the translation into English by Reverand John Young Freeman. The song has been a reminder of peace and joy to many people. During the First World War, a truce was called at Christmastime. Across the no-man’s land, British soldiers heard German voices singing “Stille Nacht” and joined in English. “Silent Night” has become one of the most famous Christmas carols because two men were faithful to trust God in the midst of their struggles.