Christmas Love- Did you know

Christmas Love- Did you know

“Born this happy morning”
Love / a baby/ yet before all creation
Blind/ now I see
Deaf though I did hear  
Essential / Love/ Did you know this love 
Not charity, never obscure

“...Moving mountains from its bedrock, yet I live without love” *
Tallying wrongs
Injustices 
Love - is not easy
Remembering those who put up with everything and anything /trust and hope no matter what

Consider this Christmas love

“And the people that remain reasonable and kind, 

I just feel like they need a special parade right now.”
They do.” *

God has purposes we cannot see—unfolding in the most difficult circumstances.
Quiet reverence/ face to face love
God knows what is on the inside-words and actions are not always necessary
Accepting the lot in this life
No time to despair over life, deep seated joy**
“God will give you all the grace you need in every situation you face.”****

Christmas love -did you know
Heaven’s perfect lamb
Seeing, walking, hearing 
Dead will live again 
Did you know - newness
Saving of sons and daughters 
Evergreen, light in all darkness
Crimson bow over all that is ununderstandable

 Did you know
“But one day, when Jesus arrives, we will see clearly, face-to-face”
“Born this happy morning”, Beginning and End
“Every tear from our eye wiped away”
Oh, how He loves, how He loves us 
Love remains / today 
The greatest is given on this Christmas Day

Christmas Love- Did you know, Glimpse poetry by Joe Holuta

About this poem: Christmas Love- Did you know is a poem about the love God has for us. God incarnate, becoming a man in Mary. Jesus lives, dies, and rose again to give us life and now seated in heaven. Thankful that once blind to salvation I now see. Many things happen in our lives that we only see in part and don’t understand and are heavy weight. The promise of God‘s love is always with us and someday all will be made clear and new to a wondrous eternity complete in every way that we now lack or struggle. Mary did you know is a song that covers the Love that never ends and was from all beginning for us.- Joe Holuta

Mary Did You Know 

https://open.spotify.com/track/1ZxRr3hL3kDelbL8WC43E6?si=s38d9Sj0Q1mGulpga0UosQ

*1 Corinthians 13  (voice) inspiration

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1Cor.13.5,1Cor.13.6,1Cor.13.7,1Cor.13.8&version=VOICE

**From Everything Happens with Kate Bowler: Feeling Crappy? Navigating the Highs and Lows with Kelly Corrigan, Dec 17, 2024

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/everything-happens-with-kate-bowler/id1341076079?i=1000680667706&r=3326

***Ecclesiastes 5:19-20

****

https://www.biblicalcounselingcoalition.org/2015/11/04/moving-beyond-god-wont-give-you-more-than-you-can-handle/

"Love... it’s never rude, crude, or indecent—it’s not self-absorbed. Love isn’t easily upset. Love doesn’t tally wrongs or celebrate injustice; but truth—yes, truth—is love’s delight!  Love puts up with anything and everything that comes along; it trusts, hopes, and endures no matter what.  Love will never become obsolete….” 1 Cor 13: 5-8 voice

Christmas love -Did you know

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Clouds- and “every cloud has a silver lining”

Clouds

The Clouds form a blanket

God speaks of the clouds

“Who blankets the heavens with clouds” *

“Do you know about the layers of thick clouds

 and how they are balanced and poised

 in the heavens”**

With clouds so thick

– Impassable they seem

“God, the weaver of heaven and earth.”

Extensive /elevated Birdseye view –

panoramic and sweeping/overseeing all/ the clouds rising over the whole earth/

The mountains, the fields of green,

“The word went out across the prairies and deserts, across the hills…” ****

The winding river’s course

The homes and peoples dotting the Bay and sound 

the vessel going to meet

The multitudes /

the compassion

Don’t fear or grieve or faint at clouds

“fight the good fight/ stay the course/ finish the race/ keep believing”

Hope when it seems like there shouldn’t be any

“Was I deceived, or did a sable cloud

Turn forth her silver lining on the night?”1

There are fields to sow 

and casting seeds- in tears if be

When will the harvest come?

Soon 

Soon you’ll be walking the rows- 

row after row

seeing the harvest***

Clouds- and “every cloud has a silver lining”, Glimpse poetry by Joe Holuta

About this poem: Clouds “every cloud has a silver lining” is a poem about hope and when we try to convey a feeling of hope when it seems like there shouldn’t be any. I dedicate this poem to my sister Diana. She has conveyed hope to others all her life- in her work, community, and especially her loved ones and family. Diana -even with heart breaking loss- is able to convey hope to us. I know she would want us to see “there’s a silver lining to every cloud that sails about the heavens if we could only see it.”2

******

1 “every cloud has a silver lining” 

convey a feeling of hope when it seems like there shouldn’t be any.

John Milton coined the phrase ‘silver lining’ in his poem Comus: A Mask Presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634:

I see ye visibly, and now believe
That he, the Supreme Good, to whom all things ill
Are but as slavish officers of vengeance,
Would send a glistering guardian, if need were
To keep my life and honour unassailed.
Was I deceived, or did a sable cloud
Turn forth her silver lining on the night?
I did not err; there does a sable cloud
Turn forth her silver lining on the night,
And casts a gleam over this tufted grove.

The first occurrence that unequivocally expresses that notion comes in The Dublin Magazine, Volume 1, 1840, in a review of the novel Marian; or, a Young Maid’s Fortunes, by Mrs S. Hall, which was published in 1840:

As Katty Macane has it, “there’s a silver lining to every cloud that sails about the heavens if we could only see it.

2 As Katty Macane has it, “there’s a silver lining to every cloud that sails about the heavens if we could only see it.

Glimpse Clouds ☁️ 

*"Who blankets the heavens with clouds,

    sends rain to water the thirsty earth,

    and pulls up each blade of grass upon the mountainside."

Psalm 147:8 voice 

 Above the clouds-

 for those of us weak, worried, or weary:)

 ⛅️☀️

** “Do you know about the layers of thick clouds

 and how they are balanced and poised

 in the heavens, 

The wonderful works of Him

 who is perfect in knowledge, "

 -Job 37:

***“Those who walk the fields to sow, casting

their seed in tears,

will one day tread those same long rows, amazed by what's appeared.

Those who weep as they walk

and plant with sighs

Will return singing with joy,

when they bring home the harvest.”

Psalm 126:5-6 voice

****“The word went out across the prairies and deserts, across the hills, over the oceans wide, from nation to nation:
"The Eternal has done remarkable things for them."
We shook our heads. All of us were stunned-the Eternal has done remarkable things for us.
We were beyond happy, beyond joyful.”
Psalm 126: 2-3 voice

Beautiful River -Swannanoa

Beautiful River -Swannanoa

Devastating river, wind and rain

We see it along the way, the suffering, the hope

To the Valley Church we sing, we hear

How great thou art*

We see the Swannanoa,**

 -“beautiful river,” 

We gasp for understanding 

“O Lord my God
When I in awesome wonder
Consider all the works
Thy hands have made,

“helping in Jesus's name”- lining the way

You are for us / them and You love them, we read***

East and the West and every little thing that can come between 

Such is the love of God for his people

We don’t know how to get there 

But Jesus does 

You don’t know when the flood will sweep you away 

But The Limitless, bottomless, the wellspring of love does not separate

Help is near 

The “helping in Jesus's name”- lining the way

The River damages

Yet the angels of orange arrive, humbly bending to the knees

They lift and pray and physically move mountains 

For They drink from the river of Your overflowing kindness.

They get strength from all the good things in your house.
    You let them drink from your wonderful river. *

Who can rescue when the waters rise and the flood fills
First time in 54 years

Katherine 90 is rescued / a raft from her home

“Beautiful river- Beauty- it was not in it,

 it only came through the river in days gone by, 

All is Sinking to the bottom 

Grace covered Katherine 

“The story that God wrote and the story that she knows -are not the same

But God -you right every wrong and mercy is your song"

Katherine explaining the day.

Far and away the winds came, trees fell, and the storm waters rose

Robin and Wendy suffered some loss,

Tree after tree had fallen / tornado winds blew

Clearing began / the army of orange they say 

Clearing, carrying away the pain and hope given to live another day

Beautiful River -Swannanoa

Devastating river, wind and rain

We see it along the way, the suffering, the hope

To the Valley Church we sing, we hear

How great thou art*

We see the Swannanoa,**

 -“beautiful river,” 

We gasp for understanding 

“O Lord my God
When I in awesome wonder

Consider all the works
Thy hands have made,

You are for us / them and You love them, we read***

East and the West and every little thing that can come between 

Such is the love of God for his people

We don’t know how to get there 

But Jesus does 

You don’t know when the flood will sweep you away 

But The Limitless, bottomless, the wellspring of love does not separate 

Help is near 

The “helping in Jesus's name”- lining the way

The River damages

Yet the angels of orange arrive, humbly bending to the knees

They lift and pray and physically move mountains
For They drink from the river of Your overflowing kindness.
They get strength from all the good things in your house.
You let them drink from your wonderful river. *

Who can rescue when the waters rise and the flood fills
First time in 54 years

Katherine 90 is rescued / a raft from her home

“Beautiful river- Beauty- it was not in it,

 it only came through the river in days gone by, 

All is Sinking to the bottom 

Grace covered Katherine 

“The story that God wrote and the story that she knows -are not the same

But God -you right every wrong and mercy is your song"

Far and away the winds came, trees fell, and the storm waters rose

Robin and Wendy suffered some loss,

Tree after tree had fallen / tornado winds blew

Clearing began / the army of orange they say 

Clearing, carrying away the pain and hope given to live another day

Beautiful River -Swannanoa, Glimpse poetry by Joe Holuta

About this poem: Beautiful River- Swannanoa is a poem about a river that for hundreds of years gave life and in an instant came death and destruction. I visited western North Carolina near Asheville after hurricane Helene and served a few days with Samaritans Purse. 

The devastation was beyond words. We were able to help a couple higher in the mountains who suffered much tornado and water damage. And also a lovely woman near the river, who lost much in the flood. I attended a small church in the valley and I felt it incomprehensible on all that it would take to rebuild to get back to some type of normal - And the piercing loss. Since many had no flood insurance to cover the loss. 

Samaritans purse - helping in Jesus Name- gave hope and fine work recovery to the residents without cost and some trusted again in their Savior - seeing Gods love so apparent and free. - Joe Holuta

*How Great Thou Art  

by Stuart Wesley Keene Hine

** Swannanoa, derived from a Cherokee word meaning “beautiful river,” was settled in the 1780s by the first settler west of the Blue Ridge, Samuel Davidson.

*** Romans 8:31-39

Easy-to-Read Version
God’s Love in Christ Jesus
31 So what should we say about this? If God is for us, no one can stand against us. And God is with us. 32 He even let his own Son suffer for us. God gave his Son for all of us. So now with Jesus, God will surely give us all things.33 Who can accuse the people God has chosen? No one! God is the one who makes them right. 34 Who can say that God’s people are guilty? No one! Christ Jesus died for us, but that is not all. He was also raised from death. And now he is at his God’s right side, speaking to him for us. 35 Can anything separate us from Christ’s love? Can trouble or problems or persecution separate us from his love? If we have no food or clothes or face danger or even death, will that separate us from his love? 36 As the Scriptures say,
“For you we are in danger of death all the time.
People think we are worth no more than sheep to be killed.”
37 But in all these troubles we have complete victory through God, who has shown his love for us. 38-39 Yes, I am sure that nothing can separate us from God’s love—not death, life, angels, or ruling spirits. I am sure that nothing now, nothing in the future, no powers, nothing above us or nothing below us—nothing in the whole created world—will ever be able to separate us from the love God has shown us in Christ Jesus our Lord.

* Psalm 36:8 ERV