“…the effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain, and it did not rain on the earth for three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the sky poured rain and the earth produced its fruit.” (from James 5:13-18)

Shut away where no one sees,
Those who pray are down on their knees.
It’s a very high call, but only I know
Of what they do since there’s nothing to show
Until a later event or final outcome
Shows “something” was done–that’s where it came from.
With confidence to the throne of grace they draw near,
To receive mercy and help–they know I’ll hear.
At times it may seem like a lonely place,
But they’ve learned to love to seek My face.
My eyes are toward them, My ears…

An account from ancient Egypt…

The Bible tells of a Pharaoh who sought to kill every newborn Hebrew boy.
One woman, Jochebed, hid her baby, to weaken the plot to destroy
his valuable life, which God had ordained, for a great work He had planned–
the deliverance of the Hebrew people from out of Pharaoh’s hand.

When she no longer could hide the baby after three months had passed by,
she put him in a basket by the bank of the river, leaving him under the sky.
At that place, Pharaoh’s daughter came to bathe, never thinking she’d find
an unusual woven chest left there, with treasure of the greatest kind.

Jochebed’s daughter, Miriam, watched to see how her baby brother would fare–
she waited, staying at a distance, after they’d placed the little child there.
Not only that, she was ready to speak up when the baby, then, was found;

Photo by Icelight

“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” John 1:14 NKJV

If there had never been a Savior, Christmas carols would never have been heard.
We wouldn’t have learned that the baby in the manger was God’s very Word.

If there had never been that baby’s birth, then when each December comes around,
we wouldn’t sing of “Joy to the World,” but merely of some snowfall on the ground.

Songs of snowmen or of reindeer can’t bless young children like songs that show
that they’ve a God of love–who created the real, live reindeer and the snow.

“Away in a manger, no crib for His bed, the little Lord Jesus laid down his sweet head;
the stars in the sky look down where He lay” are…