HOMETHE LORD'S POETPOEM: At the Threshhold
POEM: Keeping Christmas  KEEPING CHRISTMAS: POEM: Christmas Without You
POEM: At the Center  IN OUR HEARTS POEM: Become a Blessing
POEM: Who Is He?   IN OUR DAILY LIVES POEM: Truce?
KEEPING CHRISTMAS
You keep Christ in Christmas
Not by how you spell it,
But rather in how you live it.
On what do you focus
As December 25th rolls around?
Are your thoughts
On what you can give?
Or are they centered
On how you will live?
Christ remains in our Christmas
Only if we live Christmas
Each day of the whole year.
                Kathi Phillips
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CHRISTMAS WITHOUT YOU
Christmas without You
Would not exist.
We would have no cause
To celebrate.
There'd be no excuse
To give gifts.
Without You,
This time of year
Would bring no joy
Nor peace on Earth,
Good will to men.
We would have no reason
To be happy or excited.
We've gotten away
From the true meaning of Christmas.
Many have forgotten
The Babe of Bethlehem.
Many more have never heard.
But without that Babe
Born two thousand years ago
We'd have no Christmas.
So help us to remember
The true meaning of this season.
                Kathi Phillips
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AT THE CENTER
At the center of Christmas
Is love,
And the heart of love
Is a cross.
Without Christmas
There would be no Cross;
But without the Cross
No Christmas was needed.
And without love,
Neither is possible.
                Kathi Phillips
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BECOME A BLESSING
This Christmas
Seek not gifts to get,
But rather
Gifts to give.
Look around
For the places
Where you can become
A blessing to others:
Invite a lonely one
To share your holiday;
Open your heart to someone
Whose world has come apart;
Touch a life
With a smile and a hug,
Or just a listening ear.
Such are the gifts
That return much more
Than any tangible item.
In this way
Become a blessing
To one whose Christmas
Is looking bleak.
                Kathi Phillips
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WHO IS HE?
On December 25th
People think of Jesus
As the Savior of the world.
Christmas Day (and Easter, too)
Are reminders of who Christ was
Two thousand years ago.
But that's only two days a year.
Then he IS the Savior.
But who is he on December 26th?
Are there any reminders
The rest of the year
Of who Christ is today?
               Kathi Phillips
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TRUCE?
At Christmastime
We call a truce
On open warfare
And hidden snipes.
We climb up on the battlefield
And come together, playing games;
We join our hearts
In peaceful song,
Asking God to bless this day.
But once this season
Has passed away
We harden our hearts
And end our song;
Then to our trenches we return
Opening our hearts to hate again.
The battle is on as before,
Taking anger to new heights
As with the new year
We end our truce.
               Kathi Phillips
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AT THE THRESHHOLD
We're standing at the threshhold
Between the old and coming year:
We're looking at the days that passed,
Some filled with laughter, some with tears.
The old year will soon be over
And nothing can be changed:
What has happened is now set,
Never to be rearranged.
The year which has not yet begun
Holds many possibilities:
Of folks to meet and things to do
And training of abilities.
We can sit around and nothing do
Thus letting all that could have been
Be limited to a repetition
Of all we've ever done or seen.
Or we can walk through open doors
(That God has set before us)
To a future filled with joy and peace
Despite what will try to floor us.
We're standing at the threshhold,
Between two diff'ring years.
Do we look at what's behind us
Or ahead for what is to be
Allowing God's love to remind us
Of our times of victory?
               Kathi Phillips
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