Christmas: Past, Present, And Always

Ask anyone, particularly if they are much older, and they will tell you how special Christmas is and has always been to them.

Through listening to their stories plus those you could add, it’s easy to think of Christmas as a wondrous mix of such ingredients as music, decorating a Christmas tree, giving and receiving gifts, having good food and drink, taking the kids to see Santa Claus, and sharing stories and good times against the large and forever relevant backdrop of celebrating the birth of Jesus.

Put it all together and we begin to more fully understand and more … Read the rest “Christmas: Past, Present, And Always”

On A Special Stage At Christmas

Our immediate future could hardly have been more bleak.

We were less than halfway through military basic training during an unusually wet, cold, and bleak Arkansas winter.

Even worse, in three weeks most of us, including me, would be spending our first Christmas away from home, family, and friends. It was no wonder we just wanted to get Christmas over and done with as soon as possible.

As it turned out, however, it wouldn’t be that way for me and the other nineteen guys who had volunteered to sing in the Camp Chaffee chapel choir.

Captain Cuthbert, the chaplain, was … Read the rest “On A Special Stage At Christmas”