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.
Thank you, Beth. I think the Lord woke me earlier than the rest of my family to spend time with me…we’ve been so ‘bustling’ that even church has felt like a ‘to do.’ After a late night Christmas Eve at Gram & PopPop’s with 21 people (10 adults, 11 grands, plus dogs and birds) crammed in a 10×13 living room, we fell into bed around midnight. At Gram & PopPop’s (my parents), we sang “happy birthday” to Jesus, and went around the table sharing what we love best about Him, and then sang our favorite carol about Him. I think He was breaking through my “clutter-head” that night.
Despite this, I awoke dreading today because of the events that await me later at my in-laws. To quote from “Loving Well,” there are “testys” ahead, and I am hoping for peace. Thankfully, our daughter is the only grandbaby on that side, and she is a wonderful distraction.
But that’s the word I need to purge…distraction. Too much ADD thinking, too many ‘to do’ lists, too much clutter in my head.
I pulled out my Bible and couldn’t even focus…so I came here looking for help. I want His fire to burn as white-hot in me as in you…I want to follow your example as you follow Christ. I want to have my eyes so fixed on Jesus that I don’t sink in the waves that will probably come today.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts on the Word made flesh. You brought tears to my eyes, and God used you to melt the thin icy layer on the outside of my heart. Oh Jesus, the sound your birth made in the universe..it still reverberates! Thank you for shaking me out of my stupor. I’m going back to my Bible and spending time with my only source of love and peace, and praying that His Spirit bears His fruit through me no matter how barren the landscape stretches out ahead. May we be His Light, glorifying Him and showing the way!
Thank you, Beth…oh, thank you! I appreciate you and am so deeply grateful for you. MERRY CHRISTMAS, SIESTA!! I hope this day is filled with joyous celebration for you and your sweet family!
Thank-you Beth….
Love,
Adrienne
I love you, too, Beth. Merry Christmas.
Thanks for the gift this Christmas morning, Beth.
Get your hands in 2008 on the book “The Shack” by William P. Young. Only the Holy Spirit could have led me to it (I’d never heard of it), but it’s mind-blowing.
Love you,
Cathy
Wow. I love you, too. Merry Christmas. It always makes me smile when you mention Missouri, my home state. Yeah, we have white here!
I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a blessed New Year! Thanks so much for blessing my life.
Good Christmas morning, Beth! I hope you are enjoying that lazy Christmas breakfast you described. 🙂 Your post was such an awesome reminder for me. I am sitting in silence in my house right now. I am single and Christmas day is not what it used to be, but it is special all the same. God breaking His silence with a sweet baby’s cry…how beautiful!
Bless you and your family this Christmas! I love you.
Lydia
Wow. What an incredible post. Thank you so much Beth. I loved your descirpition of the food. I just celebrated my first christmas as a servant of God here in Nepal, away from everything that used to represent christmas to me in america. It was awesome because my bible study friends and i got together and cooked a FEAST. We made a huge breakfast and the biggest christmas dinner ever, which is pretty astounding if i must say so myself because we are all in our 20’s, have no mom’s or grandma’s around here (only nepalees who only know how to cook rice and lentils) and you have to MAKE everything, I mean everything from complete scratch here, including when we made sasuage having to get a pig slaughtered and spice it so it tastes like ssusage. And I must say it was an amazing meal! 🙂
So I was so struck by the reality of Christmas this year as it was completely different because I was around none of the traditions that had began to represent christmas to me from america. The highlight of my christmas day came was when i went walking to get some eggs and had to pass the biggest buddhist stupa in the world. People walk in circles around it all day long turning prayer wheels hoping for hope! I watched this today and was so struck by Isaiah 9 which said the people in a land of deep darkness have seen a great light.. mahima (means glory in nepale). I stopped and just weeped at the steeple as i thought of the words that finish up Isaiah 9 talking about unto us a savior is born who is christ the Lord. It made it so worth it to me to be away from everyone and everything I held dear… to see such darkness and remember the LIGHT that entered the world.. to truly celebrate christmas. Deri Rhomro jesha krist janma din (very merry christmas).. mine is almost over.. due to the time different, yours is just beginning
Thank you Beth for always including us and thinking of us on such a busy day..
I love you too Beth ! Merry Christmas to You and Keith and Amanda and Curtand Little Jackson Melissa and Colin and your two doggies. Jesus is the Word . Happy Birthday Jesus!!!!!
Also to all of my Blog Sisters Have a Blessed Christmas !
Love your Louisana Sister
Susan Murphy
Beautiful, beautiful truth. Thank you for sharing and Merry Christmas to you and your family. You are precious to so many of us! Hope the leftovers are terrific! love you!
Merry Christmas!
Twenty two of my famiy members gathered at my sister’s house in Texas over the weekend for Christmas together. My dad is a pastor and he had a funeral Fri. and another one Sat. so he didn’t get to join us. He is a true servant of God and God has blessed our family because of my parents’serving God for a number of years.
We came home on Sat. night and had Christmas with my son, daughter and her husband. Last night (Christmas Eve) it was just my husband and me. This morning my parents, my husband’s mom and our associate pastor came for breakfast. It’s a tradition we started years ago and just love it.(I have the most wonderful recipe for a breakfast pizza should anyone want it….and you can prepare most of it the night before)
They came before nine o’clock this morning and my mom and mother-in-law just left a little after 12:00.
I had to laugh and tell my husband that you use bacon grease in your cornbread too! It makes it so yummy & crunchy around the edges!
Your blog had me crying about paragraph two. I’m not sure exactly why, but tears were just streaming down my cheeks & hitting the keyboard.
I want to thank you for your friendship on this blog. It’s so neat to read about you and your family and all of the other families. You are so special to me and you have taught me so much about God’s Word. Thank you! Hope you have a wonderful day!
I love you,
Valerie
Beth,
Thank you for this Christmas post. You have helped me see the babe in the manger in a fresh way…”the Word became flesh.” Praise Him that He did. I’m so thankful that God has preseved His word for us and that through it we can know His Word. I’m also thankful for your ministry and God’s work throught you in my life. May you and your family have a blessed Christmas.
What a beautiful illustration of the day “Hope was born.” Thank you, dear Beth.
Merry Christmas to the Moores, the lovely LPM staff, and all of my dear Siestas. I love you.
xo
Chris
Our family just watched ‘The Nativity Story’ again the other night. Your words were my heart while watching them hold this precious child.
Merry Christmas, Joanne
I hope you saw the video on Bigmama’s site. It made tears fall from my eyes as I saw the nativity set to music.
Your meal sounds fabulous! I’m baking cornish hens and cornbread dressing, green bean casserole, Spanish corn casserole, crescent rolls and my world famous sweet potato pie! Lots of work but the leftovers will make it all worthwhile!
And yes, The Word made flesh. A moment of bliss for Anna and Simeon and the world! These two holy intercessors helped prepare the way for the coming King of Kings!
Thank you, Beth, for helping me to fall in love with Christ over and over again!
Have a blessed and awe-filled Christmas…shining in His Glory.
Love,
twinkle
I am, again, moved to tears by your profound words. Thank you, Beth, for your “ears to hear” and for using God’s gift in you to communicate it with others.
Merry Christmas & Blessings,
Sandi Floria
The sound of His Voice. i have depressed for 19yrs just depression no medication helps. 2months ago my husband Billy left me for another lady Barbara (please pray for them) That has pushed me over the edge. God has been silent these 19yrs. Didn’t say He wasn’t working in my life. i have never been a Jacob where he grabbed ahold of God and wouldn’t let Him go till He blessed him even when it was approaching daylight and he knew it could mean death. i never looked at my situation as the 400yrs of silence, but the last 2 weeks i have been asking God for a miracle the middle of Jan. Please join me,i can do absolutely nothing only God can may it glorify God regardless. i believe no matter what happens i will receive a miracle i need the peace that only God can give i need to hear from Him. Thru different people God has placed in my life, i have heard of your organization and have read the book Breaking Free and was givin for my Birthday your workbook. As i read the intro. i saw a small spark of hope!!! He will return my peace. i need disperately to hear the sound of His voice Please pray for my miracle (selfish yes i am). Again i thank your ministry for being a willing vessel for God. Praise God for loving even me and sending His only Son for me.
Wow! Thank you for sharing that. What a wonderful Christmas story this truly is. Merry Christmas! And I’m so thankful to have found this blog =)
Happy Christmas to all of you! I just took a moment among the wrapping paper and dishes to catch up on the blog this afternoon, and your words brought my focus back again to the wonder of it all!
I had a similar moment last night at our Christmas eve service – we all light candles, and stand around the edges of the sanctuary, and sing Silent night together – I stood next to my husband, looked around my church family, at the little ones reaching for the candles (!) and then at the flame of my candle, and remembered the Light of the World who puts all the happenings of the last year into perspective.
Thankyou Jesus.
Happy Christmas, Moores!
I know you had a “God with us CHRISTmas. You are loved beyond measure not because of what you do but because of what you allow HIM to do THROUGH you.
Blessings on your family and the LPM family,
Tina
Your Christmas Eve sounded like mine! Almost verbatim!!
I enjoy how you expound on the Word and how it is so alive and fresh even when it is familiar!
I hope you and your family had a Merry Christmas and have fond memories of this special time.
Blessings in Christ–
Oh, thank you so much for that. I just spent a rather worldly Christmas with my family. I’m home now, cause we mostly celebrate on Christmas Eve. We have a huge breakfast on Christmas morning. Christmas Eve is when all the aunts, uncles, cousins, everyone is there. Christmas morning only a few of us who spend the night do the santa presents and stockings and breakfast in the morning. My husband, Josh, was absolutely amazed by the Harp family Christmas (my mother’s maiden name) the first time. He described it to someone and said, “By the time everyone opens all the presents the entire floor is covered in wrapping paper and ribbon and bows. You can’t see the carpet underneath at all.” He’d never had a huge Christmas like that. He just had small Christmases with his parents and siblings and it was just presents. No Christmas dinner, nothing. And afterwards they take down the tree almost immediately in the morning after the presents and go on with their normal lives like nothing ever happened. They all do their normal every day chores and everything. No real celebration ever took place, so needless to say we don’t bother going to his mom’s for Christmas. We spend Thanksgiving with them usually and Christmas with my family.
I hope you had a Merry CHRISTmas. I just started reading your blog a few weeks ago, but I have been using your books as my bible study for years. I am raising 4 amazing little girls and was wondering what material you might recommend for them to study the scripture with. Our oldest two daughters are 10 (nearly 11) and 9 years old. We read scripture together but I would like to give them some material to guide them through the bible. TIA
Tanya
just a momma from Missouri
Beth,
Thank you for sharing the Word this Christmas. You are so right. It’s all about Him. He is the One and Only. May the light of our Father and Lord shine this Christmas Day! Praise Him, Praise Him.
oh thank you God for reaching down from on high and rescuing us from ourselves! Immanuel…God with us. Where would we be without the Lamb of God? O praise Him!
Merry Christmas, Beth. I thank God for you and the way He blesses you with the ability to make His word come alive more than any other teacher I’ve known. Hope your dressing was fabulous!
Love you and pray for you daily,
Dana
Merry Christmas siestas Beth, Amanda, and Melissa
I pray the love of our sweet Jesus shone on all of you and your family.
Siesta Beth you sound like a Rachel Ray cook to me. It sounded heavenly and I am sure it was quite wonderful…I can just smell it all…ahhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Love to you all,
tealady tammy
The WORD became flesh…that’s one of those statements in the WORD that just blows the mind. How can we even begin to imagine GOD wrapping HIMSELF in our human flesh…and yet HIS WORD tells us that HE did it. My heart is overwhelmed and my mind is absolutely blown!
I know that feeling you experienced when reading that Scripture,Beth. I watched the movie The Nativity Story twice this year for the first time and it impacted my whole Christmas. I have sung in my heart this whole season “Mary, Did You Know” and pondered over the words as they did become flesh, for us! It has truly amazed and overwhelmed my humble heart!
Thank you for taking time out to share that with us.much love,
a grateful and blessed siesta!
Merry Christmas Beth.
I’m going to bed after a long fun-filled week with kids home. Lots of cooking and lots of relating. I’m tired. But I thought I’d check in on you before I hit the rack. How nice to hear a word from you. Thank you.
My daughter’s in-laws are in town and the mom wasn’t able to attend church with us last night and was sad about that and wanted to see a service on TV. We couldn’t find anything for her and I remembered that I had sent away for your Christmas Collection. I grabbed it and LOANED it to her (I haven’t watched it yet). So today I called my daughter to see if it “hit the spot”. And I am happy to report that it did and you have a new fan. Maybe a future Siesta! What really matters is that it ministered to her on the most wonderful night of the year. Cool, huh?
I teach youth Sunday School and Sunday I was reading an exerpt from Max Lucado’s An Angel’s Story. I read the part about how Gabriel had witnessed His glory in His throne room and now how it “burst forth in His skin.” Having just finished The Tabernacle for the 2nd time and feeling it anew, the glory that was Jesus’ before He descended to the earth as a baby and how He left all that behind for us just hung in my throat as I tried to read it. It almost took me off guard. Sometimes you can read something you have read many times in scripture and it is as if you have read it for the very first time. That is what I love about the Word of God. And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. I am so thankful He did.
Merry Christmas, Beth! Our S. S. lesson was on John 1:1-18, but for some reason I thought it was Luke and began studying there last week. While reading Luke 1:35 I wondered what it meant to have the Holy Spirit “overshadow” Mary, so I did what I’ve learned from you–I looked up overshadow in the Greek Lexicon and guess what it said? One of the meanings for the word translated “overshadow” means “to envelop in a haze of brilliancy”. Isn’t that awesome? Can you just imagine it? I wish I had your gift of words to describe how discovering that made me feel. And how pondering on its meaning gave me a glimpse of the gentle power of our God. I thank God for you and for your sharing how to study God’s Word with us. May God continue to richly bless you because you have freely given so others may know. :o)
Merry Christmas to the Moore’s! I pray that you had a wonderful Christmas and thank you for the post that SO blessed my heart when I read it. I linked my blog back to yours – Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Sunshine
Dearest Beth! what a blessed, inspired passage you shared with us. Thank you…. The Word made Flesh… for us!! ……this renewed realization brought fresh *HOPE* and joyful tears out of my battered heart!!!!
A truly merry Christmas to you and the entire Moore and Jones families! I love you all so dearly!!!!!
maria cristina
We love you too. Have a blessed Christmas and Happy New Year. In Jesus’ Love Kathy Knoblock
Behold the Glory of God. I can’t think of a better way to sum up my Christmas. Thank you for this blog that was just the icing on the cake!!
Beth, just finished “A Woman’s Heart” and it gave me a fresh look at the Christ Child. The Word became flesh and DWELT AMONG US! Oh God is SO PRECIOUS!
Dearest Beth,
Thank you for that beautiful post. That same verse was what “caught” me this Christmas as well. I want to share a story with you that one of my sisters shared with me. I can’t get out of my mind.
A priest was preparing for Christmas and had had several funerals preceding it. He was simply exhausted and wondering what he could say that would speak to his flock. He decided to spend some time with his brother’s family for some much needed relaxation.
His little neice and goddaughter was three and was delighted to see him. She said, “Uncle Bob – I want to show you something.” And she led him to a corner table where a beautiful porcelain nativity set was displayed.
The priest was so thrilled that his neice was learning about the Christmas story. And so he asked her, “Do you know what that is?” And she nodded solemnly. Eager to hear her explanation – he asked “What is it?” She looked at him and said, “Breakable.”
The priest went on to say that after laughing for a long time. He realized that profound meaning of what this little child has said. Indeed God became “breakable” for us to heal our broken world.
I thought you all might enjoy that and ponder it as I have done.
Hope you had a very Merry Christmas. Blessings to all the Moore’s from your nun friends in Missouri 🙂
Sister Lynn and all
THANK you. I had not thought of it this way. I knew each of the pieces, the 400 years between Malachi and Christ and the Word became flesh…but 1) I had not thought of FOUR HUNDRED years, YEAR BY SILENT YEAR, with no word from HIM. 2) I had not thought of the fact that the moment that silence was broken, it was with Jesus’ little infant mouth! Thank you for writing and I hope y’all had an awesome Christmas and Amanda, I hope y’all got some snow and are having so much fun with your in-laws! Love you, Lisa
Beautiful!
Hope you had a wonderful Christmas Beth.
God bless,
Sue
I hope your Christmas was merry. It sounds yummy and lovely.
All season this year the prophecy fulfilled and the long silence before that has been on my mind. The Sunday before Christmas we performed Andrew Peterson’s Behold the Lamb of God during our morning service. So, rehearsing that and listening over and over to the CD just filled my thoughts for over a month before Christmas and even now with the amazing plan God had before He even breathed the world into existence. AND that HE became flesh to save us. This concert is not the typical angel-stable-shepherd pageant, but oh! what thoughts of God have filled my mind this Christmas season and beyond. That God would come down and be one of us not so He could know us better (I mean He made us – who could know us better), but so that we could know Him better and be saved by His brave act of dying on the cross – and of course His conquering death by rising again! So thank you Andrew Peterson for the words my family loves to hear and sing – “Sing out for joy for the brave little boy who was God, but He made himself nothing/He gave up his pride and He came here to die like a man.” SO, Merry Christmas indeed! God loves us!
Thank you, Beth, for your ever wonderful insights. I look forward to studying God’s word with you – and all the siestas – in the new year!
Dear Beth….
400 years just settled on me…..400 years just hit me again with the amount of time that is….that is forever long, anxiously long, desperatly long. And…..then the silence broke. Can you imagine the heavenlies on that day He was born???
Bless you friend. I hope your day was MAGNIFICENT!!
Hugs and love~
Love you too–you are one of those blessings we have received.
Merry Christmas!
Joanne
I became very weepy over the same passage Monday night in church.
I looked around, a few others had tears in their eyes…I love hearing the Word afresh even though I am familiar with the passage.
We used to save 1 gift to open on Epiphany, we celebrated the 12 days of Christmas and then put the decorations away and head to church on Jan 6 for a wonderful church service. It is something I miss from my Episcopalian background. Celebrating the birth of Jesus, God made flesh, Emmanuel for several more days..singing Christmas Carols in church through Jan 6.
Remember the wise men, they searched for the King and found Him. Let us not lose sight of Him as we head into Jan and back to our regular schedules.
I pray all you dear Siestas have a blessed and joyous 2008.
Annette
Oh I wish I could have gone with Amanda! I am from Missouri and lived in the Springfield area for years and still have family there in Springfield, Rogersville, Nixa, Ozark and Branson. I live in Texas now and I really miss the snow and real winters! It sounds like you and your family enjoyed a fantastic Christmas meal together! Thank you so much for the reminder to us that “the Word became flesh”! Praise the Lord!
Michelle
Waco, TX
I love you too! Merry Christmas to each of you. (I didn’t know you could make such fancy vittles ;).) I’m headed over to Amanda’s blog in hopes of some pictures of that precious Jackson!!
I can see Mary rocking Jesus, just cant inagin how she felt.How it was to hold him & sing to him.
Beth may I have your recipe for the dressing & gravey, I do use corn bread like you do.
My day was very very quite.I was blessed to have both kids call,& talk to my grandchildren.Now you all from LPM enjoy the rest of your time before going back to work.Take care God bless love siestas in Christ Victoria
I just saw you pictures of your family posted on your blog what a BEAUITFUL looking family,
you are bless,marina
Alleluia!