The cold wind cut like a knife. A shock to the system. Winter is here in all of its glory. Passing cars, drivers look at the Old Man in the winter Woods. The Lodge has closed for the season, and the road block is up, yet the Old Man persists in his Woods Walk. Is he possessed by the spirit of the Wood Gnomes that are being searched for? Did he have a pre-Christmas visit with Santa Claus? He wondered if the toys would be enough this year. So many are in need. Many children were hungry and lacked basic winter essentials, such as coats, gloves, and winter hats and scarves. Was there still time to purchase some mittens and snow shoes for the kids?

Time passes like the winter wind. It waits for no one. It is not a respector of calendars nor plans. The Old Man had been thinking of Christmas since July. He liked Christmas in July. Christmas twice a year would please him. The fall arrived, and joy abounded. There were hayrides and hot cocoa, Jack-O-Lanterns, and the headless Horseman. Thanksgiving was a special treat with Jennifer Lee, Annelise Ron, and Ira Kaye. A Black Friday Holiday Cigar or two made the day complete. Grand Rivers, Kentucky, afforded a lovely family Christmas with the Tennessee Brooks. Two-inch pork chops in a private Victorian Christmas-decorated dining room made the time special.

Now Christmas is 10 days away. Soon it will be here and gone, and I will verbalize my Christmas wish on January 1st, because Christmas has not yet occurred this year. So, like all of our brief lives, we wait for the hope of our hearts. Perhaps you may not have thought how important Christmas is to millions. Many wait to address serious medical conditions until the New Year.

We sing the Christmas spiritual: ‘Sweet little Jesus Boy, they made you born in a manger/Sweet little Holy child, didn’t know you’d come to save us, Lord to take our sins away.’ ‘Long time ago, you were born, Born in a manger low, Sweet little Jesus Boy. The world treat you mean, Lord, Treat me mean too, But that’s how things is down here – We don’t know who you is. You done told us how, we is a tryin!’ ‘Just seem like we can’t do right, look how we treated You. But please, Sir, forgive us, Lord – We didn’t know twas you.’

So we are trying and waiting. Christmas brings the hope of all things. We look into the Baby’s eyes to see beyond the Veil. We know there is more than we realize. We look through thick cheesecloth at our future. We peer through a glass darkly. The shepherds see the Star in the east. Their hearts are full of expectation and joy for the future. ‘For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour who is Christ the Lord. You shall find the Babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger because there was no room for him in the Inn.’

Mean words are often uttered by powerful leaders. Think little of it. The plan is already underway. ‘Nation shall rise up against nation, but the end is not yet.’ ‘Men shall be lovers of themselves more than lovers of God.’ Help us, Lord, as this applies to most of us.

‘We didn’t know who you were.’

Jesus turned over the money changers’ tables and fashioned a whip out of cords, we proclaim as we advocate for Christ for the few.

‘We didn’t know who you were.’

Let the homeless and hungry, including their spawn get jobs. They are among the Great Unwashed and unrecognized.

‘We didn’t know who you were.