Evoking memories of Christmas past, Christmas present, and Christmas future, "Christmas Chaos" gives readers a respite from the turmoil and disorder that can overwhelm everyone at Christmas. Discover new ways to celebrate, unfamiliar facts about Christmas, and how to enjoy rather than detest the holidays. You'll find no ghosts in "Christmas Chaos" -- but you may be filled with a supernatural wonder of all Christmas has to offer.There are no Scrooges here; just the truth of God's love in His extraordinary gift to us all. Create new traditions, discover biblical scriptures of comfort and joy, and find out how to "keep Christmas" in your heart.
Excerpt
SILENT NIGHT
In the silence of a wintry night, snow falls and softens the hard edges of broken dreams and empty promises. The soft sigh of a midnight breeze across the desert valley cools the heat of electric emotions that time and again are short-circuited by circumstance.
Within each lies a mystery clothed in beauty, speaking to our hearts in the language of nature's extremes, whispering to us.
Sometimes the extremes of God can only be heard in the silence of our souls. Too often, the rumble and commotion of life distracts us, forcing us to be in almost constant motion. As long as we move in cadence to the world's rhythm, we will find it difficult to hear the voice of the Creator.
The beloved hymn, "Silent Night," was created to celebrate Christmas. According to Bill Egan, Christmas Historian, the carol, 'Stille Nacht! Heilige Nacht' was heard for the first time in a village church in Oberndorf, Austria. The congregation at that Midnight Mass in St. Nicholas Church listened as the voices of the assistant pastor, Fr. Joseph Mohr, and the choir director, Franz Xaver Gruber, rang through the church to the accompaniment of Fr. Mohr's guitar."
The history of the carol can be found at Mr. Egan's web site SILENT NIGHT: The Song Heard 'Round The World (http://silentnight.web.za/history). It's fascinating but even more interesting is that every year at 5 p.m. on December 24th, a memorial service in honor of the creators of the Silent Night carol takes place in front of the Silent Night Memorial Chapel. Thousands of people from around the world attend this ceremony and sing "Silent Night" in many languages at the conclusion of this ceremony. You can find more information dealing with the ceremony and guided Silent-Night-tours (including Oberndorf and Arnsdorf) at the Oberndorf Tourism Office. If you are fortunate enough to be in Germany or close by, you might want to make a very special Christmas Eve excursion. The Silent-Night Museum in Oberndorf website (http://www.salzburg.info/en/sights/excursions/silent_night_museum_oberndorf) can provide additional information.
Simple circumstances can bring about unforgettable beauty.
A white Christmas here in the high desert is rare, but when it happens, it really is magical. Seeing a saguaro cactus dusted in snow or the surrounding foothills layered in crystalline whiteness and sparkling like diamonds can take your breath away, IF you take the time to look.
But the most magical is sometimes the unexplained.
One Christmas Eve we were hosting an open house. It was unusually foggy and the wet air seemed to dull normal sounds. We'd been outside in the heavy silence, admiring how the Christmas lights looked in the fog ... how they seemed to disappear in the mist when we heard what sounded like the clop of horse’s hooves. Now, we are only 25 miles from Tombstone but here, in this town of more than 50,000, horses are rarely seen on our streets. We stood in the stillness, fog swirling around, twinkling lights fading in the murkiness, listening and waiting when out of the mist came a horse-drawn wagon. A group of people were taking a Christmas Eve hay ride. We silently watched as the horse and wagon disappeared in the fog, amazed by the sight and the sound. The experience couldn't have been bought or planned but it remains one of the memories that are so precious to me.
Simplicity sometimes speaks more loudly than sophistication.
"Be still and know that I am God." Psalm 46:10, KJV
