Merry, merry Christmas, my beloved Siestas. It’s about 1:00 PM on Christmas Eve afternoon and I’ve got a little down time for a few precious minutes. I’m out on my back porch watching the birds at the feeders and Beanie in my flowerbeds and having another cup of coffee. I finished the last of the wrapping late this morning then started the preliminary cooking for Christmas dinner tonight. We relish the leftovers on Christmas Day after opening presents and eating a big, lazy breakfast but there’s much to do before then. The cornbread (baked in bacon grease, of course) and biscuits are cooling on the kitchen counter in high hopes of transforming into my mom’s unsurpassable cornbread dressing. Sometimes I hit the mark. Sometimes I don’t. Dressing is fickle that way. But even if it’s not as good as Aletha’s, it’s plenty good enough for the Moore’s who are used to my cooking. Rachel Ray I’m not but Happy I am.
I made iced sugar cookies last night. A little while ago I finished the homemade bread and it will rise and be ready for baking by late afternoon. I’ll make brown sugar and cinnamon sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, roasted Turkey, and the best danged gravy in the South if I do say so myself. It’s my specialty. I’m not getting too fancy because it’s just six of us this year: Keith’s parents, Melissa, Colin, Keith and me. Every other year is huge because the entire extended family plans their “Moore” Christmas on the same year. That’s the way we like it so all the aunts and uncles and cousins can be together for Christmas at least once every two years. We celebrated with Amanda, Curtis and Jackson over the weekend and they headed up to Missouri to be with the Joneses. Amanda has terrific in-laws. They built a home themselves on ten gorgeous acres outside Springfield and just moved into it. Jackson will have such a blast running his legs to near nubs on that oversized yard with his best friend, Beckham. They were expecting a light snow and I so hope they get it. As I recall, Amanda and Curt first kissed in a Springfield snow about seven Christmases ago.
This morning in my quiet time I read the profound, almost inconceivable words of John 1:1-16. They were especially on my mind because of something Melissa mouthed to me yesterday during the sermon. Pastor Gregg was preaching on Anna, Simeon and the Christ Child in the temple courts and made brief mention of the infant cries of the baby Jesus. Melissa looked past Colin and one of my darling young girl friends who was sitting beside me, fixed eyes on her mother and whispered, “The Word made flesh.” Ah, yes. The Word made flesh. Who can fathom it? I’d memorized the segment of Scripture many years ago (in fact, on the airplane trip where I brushed the old man’s hair) but I wanted to read it this morning as if I’d never seen it. I picked up a different version so I wouldn’t anticipate the words and slowly read John 1:1-16, trying to ponder it. Breathe it.
The tears stung in my eyes as the thought hit me afresh: Four hundred years of silence had followed the last of Malachi’s words. According to the Prophet Amos, generation after generation of God’s covenant people had “staggered from sea to sea” and wandered “from north to east, searching for the word of the Lord” but did not find it. There was a famine in the land. “Not a famine of food or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the Lord.” Many leaders rose and fell in Israel. Some served the people well. Yet I am amazed – so intrigued – that the masses never mistook a single one of their great leaders for an authentic prophet speaking the inspired words of God. They knew the difference. It seems that in their desperation they would have done everything they could to conjure up some kind of word yet they didn’t. Couldn’t. What a testimony to the canon of Scripture! And to God’s determination that His words be utterly distinct yet humanly recognizable.
When any of us wants someone to hear something special, we ask everybody to be quiet so the drama of the sound will increase in its contrast to the silence. That’s what God did. He ordained 400 solid years of silence so that every willing ear would be alert and in-tune when He once again opened His mouth. The drama in the heavenlies would be at fever pitch and the robes of angels would be bursting at the seams.
And there it came. Reverberating from a crude stable and the arms of poor, inexperienced parents. The silence of God was shattered in the form of a wailing infant fresh from his mother’s womb. Absorb it again. God broke the sound barrier with a squalling baby boy. Hope was born amid the soiled sod of earth. The Logos was engraved from the inside out on a precious parchment of human skin. “The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us.” Oh, that this Christmas we would behold His glory! The glory of the One and Only who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
“From the fullness of His grace we have all received one blessing after another.” John 1:16
I love you.
Merry Christmas to you Beth and your family. Thank you for all that you do. WE are blessed because of it.
Wow! Your house smells like freshly baked cornbread and mine like Swiffer WetJet! A stark contrast…I like your smells better. Although I don’t share your eloquence (thanks for that visual, though, it’s stunning!) I do share your love of “the Word [that] became flesh” and am experiencing and treasuring it this year like I never have before. Thank you! Blessings this Christmas.
-diane, MI
The food sounds teriffic!
The word deserves a big Amen!
Have an awesome Christmas!!
Much love,
Kate
Merry Christmas and a blessed 2008 Moore’s and Jones’! Thank you for opening up your lives to us and spurring us on towards love and good deeds! This blog has been a year of fun! 🙂 I love you guys! Bless yall! 🙂
Amen, dear siesta Beth! I praise God and thank Him that in the midst of my trials this year, I continue to receive one blessing after another through the fullness of His grace. What a beautiful message found in John today. Thank you for drawing my attention to it amidst the excitement of this day. Merry Christmas to the entire Moore family!
Beth,
It is interesting that that is the verse that “caught” you this Christmas. That is the very verse on the Spitaletto family Christmas card. Merry Christmas! John 1:14
Thank you Beth. Very Merry CHRISTmas to all of you!
I had just a few moments to get online and post on my blog as well. I’m surrounded by family this year and it feels so good.
I love you so much, Beth. Have a very Merry Christmas.
Merry Christmas Beth & LPM staff!
What a fabulous year this has been with you all. Thanks for always sharing your heart with us & giving us a glimpse inside your life. I received your 90 day devotinal book, Jesus, The One & Only, for CHristmas. Can’t wait to begin it in ’08. Mighty is HE, our One & Only!
much love to you,
lynda m.
Merry Christmas to you and your faimly. I’m so blessed to have participated in my first study this year (Breaking Free) and look forward to reading from your website. Thank you for being you.
I’ve been thinking about that silence of 400 years, too. And as I read your words, two things come to mind: you have a wonderful gift with putting His truth into a gift-package of words and that God has brought these thoughts to my mind, preparing me to read these words TODAY! What a gift! What a wondrous gift is His timing. What a beautiful gift is Jesus! Oh how I need Him!
You bless me, Beth!
Enjoy that yummy fare and your precious family. Tell Melissa that I think she is precious and I’m glad she’s come to be a part of LPM.
Merry CHRISTmas! Holly
PS Did you know that I “merried Chris-Smith?”
Thank you… I was on the verge of tears as I read your post. I can only imagine the desperation of the people during that 400 year silence… Oh, how I pray that I am that desperate to search for Him now while I am here on Earth… HE WILL SPEAK AND BE FOUND!!! Blessings and so much love to you.. Have a wonderful Christmas with your family…
Merry CHRISTmas beth!! I so needed this post! I love you!
Dear Sweet Beth,
Once again, God has used your words to speak to my heart — and this time He has used you to help explain to me the meaning of the silence. Over the last month, as I have been preparing my heart for Christmas, I kept trying to put myself in the shoes of those who were living in the world into which Christ was born 2000 years ago. My wonderful Sunday school teacher/scholar calls this trying to find bridge the gap between our “horizon of expectations” and theirs. I wanted to experience the same joy that must have consumed those who realized what power resided in that little baby.
But, in my fleshly attempt to seek God rather than sitting patiently and waiting for him to speak, I kept getting frustrated by the silence between Matthew and Malachi. I know that sounds silly, but I kept thinking, “God, how am I supposed to know what it felt like for them if you don’t spell it out for me in the Scripture.” Just this morning, I was voicing my frustration to my dad. And, we were imagining out burdensome the silence must have been. So, through my own frustration over God’s silence and then after reading your post, I realized that I had experienced exactly what it must have felt like to wait on God to speak. And, you are right, all the “words” that fill the Christmas story from the Magnifcat to the song of the host of angels to the precious cries of the Word made flesh must have been music to their ears. They certainly are to mine today! I love you and your family so much! Merry Christmas!
The fact that you cooked your cornbread in bacon grease makes me happier than I can even tell you. And remember: bacon fat doesn’t have any carbs.
🙂
Merry Christmas, Moores!
Thank you so much for that! Oh how I wish my family would seek to understand this “word that has been made flesh!” Maybe one day the glory of the One and Only will be enough to drop them to their knees and the only way they will be able to look is…up…and they will see the “word that was made flesh” and accept it!
WOW! Beth, Thank you so very much for this word tonight. How wonderful to breathe that in afresh.
I have been very blessed by your ability to make the Word tangible to me this year. Thank you.
I pray the Lord would bless you in abundance just as you continue to bless me and all who read this blog.
Merry Christmas.
Chelle’
Merry Christmas, I just wanted to say thanks for blogging. My husband and I are both bloggers. He has built his blog to a substantial amount of visitors everyday. We are even going with Compassion International to Uganda due to his blogging so I am grateful for what it has brought us. However many people worry about what we share about our personal lives. We really want to be open and real with who we are. We try to not share specifics but then on the other hand somethings are obvious; where we go to church, the city we live in, things like that. Anyways thats a lot of talk just to say thanks for letting us in on your life. I have done many studies of yours and by the way you teach it makes me feel like you are a friend. So thanks for allowing us to be a part of your life. If you have and tips on how or where to draw the line of being in the public eye it would be appreciated. Have a great day! H
whittakerwoman.typepad.com
ragamuffinsoul.com
Oh how I love you Sister! I am waiting to attend our Communion Service to celebrate the flesh and blood that was shed for us and brought us life. How appropriate-the Word became flesh. I am praying for you this Christmas-your first without your Daddy. I know there is a void this year and you are in my thoughts and prayers. You and I met almost 10 years just 3 weeks after my own father passed away and you ministered to my brokenness so powerfully through the Word. Thank you Sister and I will be lifting you up this Christmas Season. You are such a precious gift. May God Richly Bless You!
I’d actually memorized that portion of scripture years ago, I think I’ll go ponder on it again.
Can I come eat dinner at your house?
it sounds really good!! I’d planned on making fresh bread today but didn’t get that far.
Love you too Siesta,
Kathleen
sitting here pondering Christmas, and children, and wanting my mama Beth just a little, and thrilled to check and here you are with a word! How very precious you are to me! I have been stumbling on this scripture for the last two weeks every where I turn…I am a little slow :), The word made flesh in a screaming baby boy…how beautiful, and how awesome is our God! Sitting here with Jesus the One and Only, ready it every year between Thanksgiving and Christmas…I just fall in love with HIM all over again…Thank you for teaching me, and showing me that HE loves the pit dwellers and brings them out to a spacious place. Merry Christmas Princess Beth!
Amen. So unfathomable. God wraps Himself in flesh and after the longest silent night, Our Savior is born.We’re off to church at St. Martin’s tonight, but I feel like I already received a blessing, as I sat in stillness with your words. Blessed Christmas, Beth, to you and your family.
O come, O come Emmanuel,
And Ransom captive Israel,
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear.
Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.
O come, Thou Wisdom from high,
Who ordered all things mightily;
To us the path of knowledge show,
And teach in her ways to go.
O come, Thou rod of Jesse, free
Thine own from Satan’s tyranny;
From depths of hell thy people save,
And give them victory over the grave.
O come, Thou Day-Spring come and cheer
Our spirits by Thine advent here;
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night,
And death’s dark shadows put to fight.
O come, Thou Key of David, Come,
And open wide our heavenly home;
Make safe the way that leads on high,
and close the path to misery.
O come, O come great Lord of might,
Who to Thy tribes on Sinai’s height
In anceint times once gave the law
In cloud and majesty awe.
O come, Thou root of Jesse’s tree, An ensign Thy people be; Before Thee rulers silent fell; All people’s on the mercy call.
O come, Desire of nation bind
In one the hearts of all mankind;
Bid THou our sad divisions cease,
And be Thyself
our King of Peace……
Caroline Kirkpatrick
You are so very outstanding with words.I myself cant inagin the site that specail day.I cant imagin how Mary felt. or her husband.Now Beth I need your recipe for the gravey, looks like it to me your a great cook, wish I was there.I am a good cook but didnt go all out just me & my husband.I did have time with mom today &sis & one of her daughters.Sounds like you may feel better. I pray you do.Thanks for shareing this with us.May God bless you all sov ery much & May the new year be the best ever. God bless love sietas in Christ Victoria from NC we had no coat weather today.Oh my 3 pets, are sleeping right now but they get gifts tomorrow,Zoey the 5 month Lab is so very specail.Tori 11 year old cocker, Smokey the 7 year old cat,will be happy.love yea all
Thank you. My thoughts exactly.
Ohhhhhh!!!! God just keeps throwing John 1 in front of me. It’s everywhere I turn, radio, church signs, blogs…. I’m going to finish this thought, go grab my Bible and get flat with the Father for a little while.
Sounds like a very yummy Christmas celebration at the Moore home. I pray that each one of you have a very blessed Christmas!
Anticipating Him!
steph.
“Glory to God in the Highest and on earth peace, good will to men”!!
Thank you sweet siesta for the fresh Word! May God alone be praised forever and ever!!!
Mama B, I just wish you the most wonderful celebration of Jesus’ birth you’ve ever had!! What a blessing you are to us because of how He works in and speaks through you. I know you don’t think you are much of a writer, but on more than one occasion the Lord has used the words from your sweet heart to speak to me (sometimes loudly) in the most awesome way.
You are a gem to be treasured 🙂
Love you to pieces..
What a fresh word that is Siesta… I hadn’t thought of the 400 years of silence being broken with a baby’s cry. Wow. Gave me goosebumps. Nothing like a holy goosebump on Christmas Eve.
Thank you for that and Merry and Blessed Christmas.
Love you.
Oh Beth you have made me hungry for your food and God’s Word!!!
I have had the most special season with Jesus. I walked outside a moment ago(it’s late here) to look for a present I couldn’t find, it’s cold outside and the sky is so clear with a beautiful moon and stars. I paused my search for the gift and looked up and praised our Lord Jesus and wished Him a Happy Birthday! I found the gift I was looking for, a cd for my son but more importantly I found THE GIFT over 36 years ago and asked Him to come into my heart as a young child and as I was looking up at the dark sky I thought of all that I have been through and how Jesus has been through it all with me. I wouldn’t want to go a day without him, a situation without Him, I love Him, He is my best friend!! My mom is in my kitchen making her homemade chocolate pies and that is a miracle, she has had brain cancer for over 10 years and had to relearn everything! God is Faithful! I will make my casseroles tonight and I have a spiral ham and a deep fried turkey and a ton of side dishes. I just love this time of year.
Merry, Merry Christmas to you and your sweet family!!
I love you,
Patty
Beth, thank you for sharing. Your thoughts from Scripture always touch me.
This Advent season I’ve started working through Jesus: the One and Only devotional. It’s been amazing to ponder the Word in Flesh. And because Easter is early in 2008 and I have 3 kids (ages 4.5, 2.5, & 16 months so there is NO way I’d ever get that book done in 90 days!!) I hope to finish it right about Easter.
Ladies, even though it’s too late to use the book to prepare your heart for Christmas, I HIGHLY recommend using to to prepare for Easter.
Thanks again, Beth. Merry Christmas!
My church had the moveie the Nativity he sure got to me about some things, like when eh frist cried that had to have been something , they were so young no Dr’s nothing & she ahd him, nothing for pain or anything.Then putting him to bed in a manger.all kindfs of peolek comeing tosee him with specail things saying neat things ,wonder how thay felt seeing JESUS face to face,wow. this is waht its all about she was so young,so specail,JESUS is the reasion for it all. God bless love soster in Christ Victoria from NC
All of your “laid-back” feast sounds SCRUMPTIOUS — and what is it with dressing? Where, oh where, is the consistency?
“The word made flesh.” I had the “mommy moment” we all do when we think of Mary and what she treasured in her heart yesterday during church. I interpret our services for the deaf, so I was facing the congregation as the preacher was talking about Mary holding her baby, and later watching him die. I glanced over and just noticed a young mom rocking her several months old baby to sleep and thought of when my 10 year old smelly-footed little guy was that size. The tears stung MY eyes to think of Mary watching her baby God become man God and all that she went through, yet treasured in her heart.
From the fullness of His grace, indeed. Too many blessings to see or imagine. Thank you for reminding us.
Merry Christmas, my dear Siesta Beth and Happy Birthday Jesus. May the light of our Lord and Savior shine brighter than ever before for the whole world to see. Much love to you from your Siesta in Lathrop, Missouri (by the way, Lathrop is about 3 hours north and west of Springfield.)
This post might just be my favorite thing I unwrap this year! WOW. The Word made flesh. Those words always give me the chills.
Merry, merry Christmas to you and yours!
How exciting! My first blogging experience! I will have to admit this is the first time I’ve heard of living proof ministries. I was searching for a Beth Moore myspace blog and just happened to come upon this site.
The first time I heard the name “Beth Moore” an evangelist told the story of the brushing of the old man’s hair. I instantly became a fan. I share that story often. Since that time I have had the opportunity to read a few publications and admire your wonderful writing skills also. Just tonight, I shared the story with my sister-in-law – who in turn told me of the blogspot – I was reminded of God’s sense of humor. How cute that my first blogspot experience makes mention of the very same story that started the whole ting!
What a pleasure to meet you! I pray for the gift you have!
Beautiful, Beth. I love that the silence of God was shattered by a wailing baby boy. Now that is God doing more than we ask or expect.
Merry Christmas to you and your sweet family!
WOW! Thanks for taking a break from the hustle and bustle to share that!
Beth,
I was marveling at the fact that Amanda’s in laws are in Springfield, which is really close to where I live, and I was really feeling the string of connections of our sisters in Christ..and then you blew me away, or perhaps it was God, It started with John 1:1-16, that was basically the sermon of my church on Sunday…And the further I read into your blog, God was so speaking to my heart..You talked about the famine in the land, the famine of not hearing from God…We are so lost when God isn’t speaking to us..and I couldn’t help thinking about America and the road that our nation has chosen to travel, and I just feel that we are in a famine of a similar situation..Our country is so clueless..we have got to get our priorities back on God, before it is too late to turn back..if it isn’t already..
sorry that this is so long, but I had to write it.
I love you and the whole Keith family as if I have known you guys all my life…and through God we do know each other, not personally, but spiritually.
Merry Christmas.
Delilah in Berryville
Amen! Beth. Such beautiful words! Truth! Zech. 2:10 says “I AM coming. I will live among you. Be still before the LORD all humankind because HE has roused HIMSELF from his holy dwelling.” And the Word became flesh. I’ve thought about that so much this week. Come to Me for life—John 5:39—and don’t think that by studying the Word you possess eternal life. Remember sharing that with us? I’ve gone over & over in my mind I Sam 16:7—man looks at the outward appearance this Christmas, but God is looking on our hearts. Thank you Beth for your words that fall like rain Deut 32:2. Thank you for your life that leads many to righteousness and shines like the stars Dan 12:3. Thank you for so bringing our beautiful God to all of us through your teachings. Someone once wrote: “all things lead to God” and I think he was predicting that blogging would too 🙂 You have helped me so much this difficult year for me to look at the fray of my heart. Merry Christmas and Glory to our beautiful God in the highest and peace to you and your family on whom his favor rests. Luke 2:14
When I read your precious words, I had to step away a little while, & let it flow thru my heart. The WORD became flesh… so today I can say CHRIST in me!!! No longer I who lives…& yet it is not only me, but whosoever will – anyone who calls out on the NAME that is above all NAMES! JESUS..JESUS..JESUS..
What a precious gift we’ve been given, with such love that it continues in our lives from Glory to Glory.
This week I’ve been very boldly reminded of HIS love for me. This year was the first year that my wonderful special needs son understood much about CHRISTMAS, & it has been such a joy to behold!! I have treasured each moment – yet with my husband out of work since Sept. it was to be pretty sparse. But GOD..(that really says it!!)On Friday,the neighbor that we ride horses with gave a beautiful toy horse, with all the fixins’ – enough to make his cowboy heart sing. Sunday, he received a truck with so many buttons, & sounds!! From his Wednesday night Children In Action Teacher. Then today, a dear sister in CHRIST showed up with a Tractor.. I thought he would pass out from excitement.. Here’s the wonderful part – these people were not aware of our current circumstances. Would my boy have been happy with the bit that we were able to put under the tree – yes he would have been, yet GOD…
I don’t deserve a single bit of anything from the creator, & sustainer of all that is, still HIS wonderful Hand reached out to my heart as those little boy eyes glowed with joy – Oh that I would receive the amazing gift of my SAVIOR with the same abundance in my heart!! May it spill out from my eyes in the same way, so that it flows to all I come in contact with!! Right here, right now, the sound of HIS Voice rings clear!! & my heart is so full I can hardly contain it…
I pray that the HOLY SPIRIT would flow in all of your homes & families TODAY!! as HE has in mine!
Listen!
mistie woods – abilene
And we love you too Beth. Praying for a blessed Christmas and New Year for you and your family.
It has just turned Christmas day here in Wyoming. My youngest and I playing with some of the toys both of us had opened several hours earlier on Christmas eve. I went to the internet where your site is my home page…hoping you had written. You had… and my Christmas just gets better and better. Sometimes at church, I have to stop singing, because the words just catch in my throat, I’m so overcome with emotion. Or I can be driving with a CD on and tears sting my eyes. I’m so in love with that tiny baby who is my Savior!!
I made the King Ranch Casserole for dinner on Christmas Eve, before church. Made little holly leaves out of green peppers and pimiento’s were the berries. Forgot to take a picture, but the five of us, pretty much ate the whole thing. We’re pigs too!!
A blessed Christmas to you Beth and your family. I love you, too!
Melana
You bless this brokenhearted mother, battling so desperately to keep her eyes on her Lord and the truth that Christmas is about His baby and not my own that I am grieving for, to no end. You bless me. Thank you for being obedient to the call.
The Journey Continues ~
It is 12:18 AM on Christmas morning. I finally told my two sons( they are almost 21 and 19) I needed to sleep. They said they would prefer me to stay up and talk with them and watch dvd “MAN” movies. I declined and said I needed beauty sleep ~ hahahaaa
Merry Christmas dear Siesta!
JINGLING THE BELLS FOR JESUS!
With ” Heaven Bound” blessings,
Kim Safina
What a great thing to read on Christmas Eve. Thank you so, much, Beth! I know what I’ll be looking over in my quiet time tomorrow, after my babies’ open their new scooters, a Wet ‘n Wiggles baby doll, and a few other goodies.
Merry, Merry Christmas to all the Moores and Jones’. I love you so much!
Kristen
Merry Christmas – and I love you, too.
Warm in Alaska – but really warm now that I’m enjoying family in Southern California.
I love you too.
Beth,
John 1: 1-14 has been a recurring part of my heart and life this past week. I believe the Word wants us to remember that He was just like us at one time. I still am amazed that He chose to leave heaven and as Eldredge and Curtis say, “make a daring raid into enemy territory to rescue His beloved”. Oh, it just blows me away!!
The Word became flesh and pitched His tent among us!! To the praise of His glorious grace!!
Merry Christmas, dear one!
Leah
http://www.thepoint-leah.blogspot.com
Merry Christmas Siestas! May all that you come into contact with see Jesus Christ flowing from with-in and out upon them!
Blessings upon you and your family,
Yolanda