Hi, I’m Joni Eareckson Tada and welcome to Christmas week … in fact, sing along with me, would you?
Silent night, holy night.
All is calm, all is bright.
Round yon Virgin Mother and Child;
Holy Infant so tender and mild.
Sleep in heavenly peace.
Sleep in heavenly peace.
Well, isn’t that a wonderful way to close out this wonderful week, glad you sang along, and I love it that Christmas is just a few days away. Ken and I have plans for Christmas Eve dinner – my sister Kathy is here from Maryland, from out of town, and so she’ll help me whip up something fun for dinner, maybe a turkey with stuffing. And with my sister around, I know there’ll be lots of singing in the house—she and I love to harmonize on favorite Christmas carols. And I’m sure, in the evening, Kathy and I will plop into bed together, snuggle our heads and reminisce about Christmas when we were children.
Looking back on when we were kids, Kathy and I have rather unusual memories of Christmas caroling with my family. The Eareckson family did it on horseback. Now, I couldn’t have been more than five years old, (Kathy was about 7) when I was put up on my big horse. And I joined the family tradition, up on top of Thunder (that was my mare’s name). I remember one year when we went caroling on horseback, it actually snowed one evening. Oh, what a glorious experience.
We would trot up to a nearby farmhouse, pull our horses up outside the neighbor’s front door, reach for our hymnals in our saddlebags, and sing those beautiful choruses; all my sisters and I could harmonize together and Daddy would sing bass. It got pretty cold on those winter nights and my daddy would pull out hot water bottles from his saddlebags and put them between us and the cold seat of our saddles; it sure was the way to warm up. More than just the memory of nighttime horseback rides through the snow, the best part for me were those wonderful Christmas carols.
So it’s my prayer, and I bet it would be my sister’s prayer, that this weekend God will put a song in your heart. The Bible says to sing and make melody in your heart, and this is a great week to do just that. And to get you in the spirit, take a minute and sing another carol with me on my radio page at joniandfriends.org. I’ve videoed a short Christmas greeting and, of course, you know me, I just have to sing … so join me on another carol and sing along at joniandfriends.org. Oh, and given that we are drawing very close to the end of this year, I want you to do something else with me, actually, with my husband Ken and me. My husband and I have decided again to read through the Bible in a year for 2014, and we’d love for you to join us. It’s a chronological reading and we’ve printed out the reading schedule ready for you to use; it’s all posted up on joniandfriends.org.
So, friend, enjoy these next few days leading up to the celebration of our Savior’s birth. And don’t forget… this week keep singing, keep singing that song God puts on your heart!
© Joni and Friends, 2013
Compliments of Joni and Friends
PO Box 3333 Agoura Hills, CA 91376