{"id":8011,"date":"2012-12-11T13:55:24","date_gmt":"2012-12-11T19:55:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/politickles.com\/blog\/?p=8011"},"modified":"2012-12-11T14:00:01","modified_gmt":"2012-12-11T20:00:01","slug":"a-creche-course-for-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/politickles.com\/blog\/a-creche-course-for-christmas\/","title":{"rendered":"A Cr\u00e8che Course for Christmas"},"content":{"rendered":"

This year marks the 25th anniversary of the first publication of “A Visit from the Christ Child,” which I wrote and published back in 1987 to encourage people to remember the true meaning of Christmas.<\/em><\/p>\n


<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

A Visit from the Christ Child<\/span><\/h2>\n

by P\u00e8re Rob\u00e9rt
\n(for Maria, Ida, Isabel, Maxine, Crozet & Audrey)<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Twas the morning of Christmas, when all through the house
\nAll the family was frantic, including my spouse;
\nFor each one of them had one thing only in mind,
\nTo examine the presents St. Nick left behind.<\/p>\n

The boxes and wrapping and ribbons and toys
\nWere strewn on the floor, and the volume of noise
\nIncreased as our children began a big fight
\nOver who got the video games, who got the bike.<\/p>\n

I looked at my watch and I said, slightly nervous,
\n“Let’s get ready for church, so we won’t miss the service.”
\nThe children protested, “We don’t want to pray:
\nWe’ve just got our presents, and we want to play!”<\/p>\n

It dawned on me then that we had gone astray,
\nIn confusing the purpose of this special day;
\nOur presents were many and very high-priced
\nBut something was missing — that something was Christ!
\nI said, “Put the gifts down and let’s gather together,
\nAnd I’ll tell you a tale of the greatest gift ever.<\/p>\n

“A savior was promised when Adam first sinned,
\nAnd the hopes of the world upon Jesus were pinned.
\nAbraham begat Isaac, who Jacob begat,
\nAnd through David the line went to Joseph, whereat
\nThis carpenter married a maiden with child,
\nWho yet was a virgin, in no way defiled.<\/p>\n

“Saying ‘Hail, full of Grace,’ an archangel appeared
\nTo Mary the Blessed, among women revered:
\nThe Lord willed she would bear — through the Spirit — a son.
\nSaid Mary to Gabriel, ‘God’s will be done.’<\/p>\n

“Now Caesar commanded a tax would be paid,
\nAnd all would go home while the census was made;
\nThus Joseph and Mary did leave Galilee
\nFor the city of David to pay this new fee.<\/p>\n

“Mary’s time had arrived, but the inn had no room,
\nSo she laid in a manger the fruit of her womb;
\nAnd both Joseph and Mary admired as He napped
\nThe Light of the World in his swaddling clothes wrapped.<\/p>\n

“Three wise men from the East had come looking for news
\nOf the birth of the Savior, the King of the Jews;
\nThey carried great gifts as they followed a star —
\nGold, frankincense, myrrh, which they’d brought from afar.<\/p>\n

“As the shepherds watched over their flocks on that night,
\nThe glory of God shone upon them quite bright,
\nAnd an angel explained the intent of the birth,
\nSaying, ‘Glory to God and His peace to the earth.’<\/p>\n

“For this was the Messiah whom prophets foretold,
\nA good shepherd to bring his sheep back to the fold;
\nHe was God become man, He would die on the cross,
\nHe would rise from the dead to restore Adam’s loss.<\/p>\n

“Santa Claus, Christmas presents, a brightly lit pine,
\nCandy canes and spiked eggnog are all very fine;
\nLet’s have fun celebrating, but leave not a doubt
\nThat Christ is what Christmas is really about!”<\/p>\n

The children right then put an end to the noise,
\nThey dressed quickly for church, put away all their toys;
\nFor they knew Jesus loved them and said they were glad
\nThat He’d died for their sins, and to save their dear Dad.<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a91986, F.R. Duplantier<\/small><\/p>\n

Websites<\/a><\/strong> all across the internet are helping put Christ back in Christmas by posting this revised version of \u201cA Visit from St. Nick.\u201d Why not join them? Post the poem on your site, or link to it here<\/a><\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Click on image to see\/ order a framable poster.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Fan “Visit” on Facebook<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This year marks the 25th anniversary of the first publication of “A Visit from the Christ Child,” which I wrote and published back in 1987 to encourage people to remember the true meaning of Christmas. A Visit from the Christ Child by P\u00e8re Rob\u00e9rt (for Maria, Ida, Isabel, Maxine, Crozet …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"slim_seo":{"title":"A Cr\u00e8che Course for Christmas - Politickles","description":"This year marks the 25th anniversary of the first publication of \"A Visit from the Christ Child,\" which I wrote and published back in 1987 to encourage people t"},"_slim_seo_primary_term_category":0,"_slim_seo_primary_term_post_tag":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[4035,2194,528,392,588,387,589,2195,393,386,385],"class_list":["post-8011","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-a-way-in-a-manger","tag-christ-back-in-christmas","tag-christmas-poem","tag-creche-course","tag-fr-duplantier","tag-night-before-christmas","tag-pere-robert","tag-reason-for-the-season","tag-true-meaning-of-christmas","tag-visit-from-st-nick","tag-visit-from-the-christ-child"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/politickles.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8011","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/politickles.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/politickles.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/politickles.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/politickles.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8011"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/politickles.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8011\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/politickles.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/politickles.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/politickles.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}