I don’t usually forward email to you because I value your time and our partnership in the Gospel but I felt this was one time that I must send this on in hopes that it touches you as deeply as it has touched me.
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving,
Jeff
Well worth the length, and even a tad convicting, as tears well up in your eyes....
(I actually read it several times -- its simply pure genius!)
A Different Christmas Poem
The embers glowed softly, and in their dim light,
I gazed round the room and I cherished the sight.
My wife was asleep, her head on my chest,
My daughter beside me, angelic in rest.
Outside the snow fell, a blanket of white,
Transforming the yard to a winter delight.
The sparkling lights in the tree I believe,
Completed the magic that was Christmas Eve.
My eyelids were heavy, my breathing was deep,
Secure and surrounded by love I would sleep.
In perfect contentment, or so it would seem,
So I slumbered, perhaps I started to dream.
The sound wasn't loud, and it wasn't too near,
But I opened my eyes when it tickled my ear.
Perhaps just a cough, I didn't quite know, Then the
sure squeak of footsteps outside in the snow.
My soul gave a tremble, I struggled to hear,
And I crept to the door just to see who was near.
Standing out in the cold and the dark of the night,
A lone figure stood, his face weary and tight.
A soldier, I puzzled, some twenty years old,
Perhaps a Marine, huddled here in the cold.
Alone in the dark, he looked up and smiled,
Standing watch over me, and my wife and my child.
"What are you doing?" I asked without fear,
"Come in this moment, it's freezing out there!
Put down your pack, brush the snow from your sleeve,
You should be at home, on a cold Christmas Eve!"
For barely a moment I saw his eyes shift,
Away from the cold and the snow blown in drifts..
To the window that danced with a warm fire's light
Then he sighed and he said "Its really all right,
I'm out here by choice. I'm here every night."
"It's my duty to stand at the front of the line,
That separates you from the darkest of times.
No one had to ask or beg or implore me,
I'm proud to stand here like my fathers before me.
My Gramps died at 'Pearl on a day in December,"
Then he sighed, "That's a Christmas 'Gram always remembers."
My dad stood his watch in the jungles of 'Nam',
And now it is my turn and so, here I am.
I've not seen my own son in more than a while,
But my wife sends me pictures, he's sure got her smile.
Then he bent and he carefully pulled from his bag,
The red, white, and blue... an American flag.
I can live through the cold and the being alone,
Away from my family, my house and my home.
I can stand at my post through the rain and the sleet,
I can sleep in a foxhole with little to eat.
I can carry the weight of killing another,
Or lay down my life with my sister and brother..
Who stand at the front against any and all,
To ensure for all time that this flag will not fall."
"So go back inside," he said, "harbor no fright,
Your family is waiting and I'll be all right."
"But isn't there something I can do, at the least,
"Give you money," I asked, "or prepare you a feast?
It seems all too little for all that you've done,
For being away from your wife and your son."
Then his eye welled a tear that held no regret,
"Just tell us you love us, and never forget.
To fight for our rights back at home while we're gone,
To stand your own watch, no matter how long.
For when we come home, either standing or dead,
To know you remember we fought and we bled.
Is payment enough, and with that we will trust,
That we mattered to you as you mattered to us."
PLEASE, would you do me the kind favor of sending this to as many people as you can? Christmas will be coming soon and some credit is due to our U.S servicemen and women for our being able to celebrate these festivities.
Let's try in this small way to re-pay a tiny bit of what we owe. Make people stop and think of our heroes, living and dead, who sacrificed themselves for us.
To recall that liberals such as Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi vote against making it a crime to desecrate the U.S. flag.
And then to quote this poem:
“he bent and he carefully pulled from his bag, the red, white, and blue... an American flag.”
Kind of makes you wonder how many voters had erroneously cast ballots for liberal candidates this year—and then, upon learning how completely out of sync they are with our hearts & minds, must gnash their teeth at night; “What have I done!”
Sharing my faith with Alex’s brother, Sean, was kind of hard But with Alex…it was one of the smoothest talks I have ever had with another person about Christ and my faith. It started with an easy question, we were on the topic of death, or something and he had asked me, “Do you think they miss you up there?” So I went into detail and told him, well yea, for example, “sure my grandma misses me, she was only with me for a year, and I never really got the chance to know her, and to have the time I would have wanted with her…so yeah, she misses me, and yes, my Father (God) wants me to be with him, but not now, not yet, for my time will come…” something like that…then he said, “well what about me, do you think he wants me up there with him as much as you Tara when I die?”