"That we may be kept in its hope"

This year I've rediscovered the work of Catherine Marshall, best known for her semi-biographical novels Christy and Julie. But she has a treasure-trove of non-fiction as well. I've been plodding through Beyond Our Selves for the last few months, and it is very inspiring and encouraging (and I highly recommend it!). Marshall's first husband, Peter Marshall, was a noted preacher and chaplain for the U.S. Senate before his untimely death in 1949. The following is from one of his sermons, which can also be found in book form:

Selection from “Let’s Keep Christmas” by Peter Marshall

"The years that are gone are graveyards in which all the persuasions of men have crumbled into dust. If history has any voice, it is to say that all the ways of men lead nowhere. There remains one way-The Way-untried, untested, unexplored fully...the way of Him who was born a babe in Bethlehem.

In a world that seems not only to be changing, but even to be dissolving, there some tens of millions of us who want Christmas to be the same... with the same old greeting "Merry Christmas"and no other. We want to hold on to the old customs and traditions because they strengthen our family ties, bind us to our friends, make us one with all mankind for whom the Child was born, and bring us back again to the God who gave His only begotten Son...

So we will not "spend" Christmas, nor "observe" Christmas...we will "KEEP" Christmas- keep it as it is, in all the loveliness of its ancient traditions.

May we keep it in our hearts, that we may be kept in its hope."