Thoughts for Christmas

In the hustle and bustle of this season, these words have caused me to slow down and reflect. The last line has particularly struck me as a needed reminder.

O God, take me in spirit to the watchful shepherds,

    and enlarge my mind;

Let me hear good tidings of great joy, and hearing,

    believe, rejoice, praise, adore,

my conscience bathed in an ocean of repose, my

    eyes uplifted to a reconciled Father;

place me with ox, ass, camel, goat, to look with

    them upon my Redeemer's face, and in him

    account myself delivered from sin;

let me with Simeon clasp the new-born child to my

    heart,

    embrace him with undying faith,

exulting that he is mine and I am his.

In him thou has given me so much that heaven can

    give no more.

- from The Valley Of Vision