Christmas Gift Transcending

Oh my, too old to believe in Santa Claus? Well, maybe we are. However, are we too old to remember when we did and the wonder that still lies there, napping within our memories?

Take this time, this moment, to go back to the innocence of living in a world that is bright, filled with fairies and sugar plums and tin solders, dancing and marching across the dreams of your childhood.

The eternal light with which childhood fills the world you can still find hiding there. It lays in wait for you, hoping you will remember and return for a visit, stepping for a fleeting moment away from the adult world you now live in.

Let me take you back now to the gifts of childhood. Not just the gifts wrapped in colorful paper and bright ribbon but also those gifts that money cannot buy and the world cannot withhold from you heart.

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by Eugenia S. Hunt

The turmoil rushes through our souls,

Rising with each year.

God is watching from a distance,

He'll shoulder every fear.

Voices, yearning to be heard,

Cry from every land.

God is watching from a distance,

He's holding out His hand.

We share our hopes, pray for peace,

Seek guidance from above.

Yet God is watching from a distance,

Offering all His love.

If all mankind, this Christmas Day,

Blind eyes would open wide.

Where God is watching from a distance,

We'd see Him by our side.

Have You Kept The Memory Alive?

Remember how hard it was to get to sleep on Christmas Eve? I do! Tossing and turning, trying so hard not to think about morning, Santa's visit, or the gifts he would bring that soon would be yours to cherish.

I can still feel the cold floor under my bare feet as I raced through the kitchen and into the living room and the delighted thrill in the pit of my stomach as I caught my first glimpse of the tree and its bounty below.

My children each came to me on their first Christmas, after they found Santa was a wonderful, imaginary fellow, wishing they could go back. They wanted to return, just once more, to believing that one jolly little man in a red suit could reach every home and every child in one night with his wonderful gifts. I told each one in turn that some day the magic would return. It would return as they watched the faces of their own children. Again, the magic of Santa would come alive for them.

However, Santa wasn't the only reason for Christmas in our home. Our children, as we had before them, believed in the Birthday of Christ and knew that this was a belief that would outlive their childhood and stay with them into adulthood and beyond. Through the story of Christ's birth, they learned the true meaning of Christmas.

Are you willing to stop and consider the needs of others? To take time to remember the loneliness of the elderly, to think of what others have to bear on their hearts, to feel kindness toward those whom you do not know, and pray for your enemies? Are you ready to stop asking how much your friends and family love you and ask yourself whether or not you love them enough?

Can you keep Christ in Christmas and keep Him in your heart?

Are you willing to do these things for a day? Better yet, for a lifetime?

Then you are ready for Christmas!

by Eugenia S. Hunt

Whenever I think of the night of Jesus' birth, though I had heard the story told with a tone of sadness due to his lowly, worldly position, I still reminisce of my own childhood interpretation and acceptance.

Standing alone, looking down at the scene in the stable on that distant night, I saw two people, a man kneeling beside a woman who was lying near a manger. Nestled in the manger, was a tiny baby. The area around the manger was aglow with a strange light radiating from above.

The child was very quiet, though awake, and the feeling of love wrapped itself around me as I watched from afar.

With a knock at the stable door, shepherds entered, asking to see the child. They told of an angel who had appeared to them in the fields, telling them they would find, in the city of David, a baby who was Christ the Lord. He would be wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger. When they found this to be true, they rejoiced at finding him and began to tell everyone they met of the wonderful news.

All the while, angels voices could be heard singing from the Heavens, telling of God's son and his birth in Bethlehem to a virgin called Mary.

And, as I listened, I heard her call his name, Jesus.

Though a child, I began to search for my own meaning behind his birth. There was a desire to look beyond the obvious and find a different theory for God's decision to have His son come into our lives in such a manner.

Rather than a King's riches, God gave his only son special gifts to carry him on his journey.

First, He selected a clear night and a glorious star that could be seen for miles around to announce his birth. He chose a stable and a manger for his birthplace; a place to enchant any child with the smell of fresh hay and open, cool air to breathe his first breath. Gentle animals surrounded him when he opened his eyes for the first time.

Jesus was then given a mother's love, able to surpass all other forces on earth. A mother's love, soft and comforting, yet a love strong enough to withstand all adversity, given freely because he was her child.

He received an earthly father to train him to be masculine with gentleness; confident, yet humble. A man to guide him until he was ready to use his own wings, the wings held patiently in his Heavenly Father's hands.

Suddenly, I realized these gifts were given to each of us, according to our own circumstances.

Once Jesus began his Father's business on earth, he possessed the power of healing, teaching, and a vast understanding of man's relationship to God.

Moving ahead, I saw the streets leading to the hill on which Jesus died. All too clearly, man's lack of acceptance was apparent because Jesus held abilities within his radius that man could find no earthly basis for, abilities given him by God.

As I stood rigid, assessing the scene before me, the dark clouds rolled in, obscuring the crisscross shadows on the hill. Sounds of human suffering assailed my eardrums. The angry crowd could not possibly know their own loss or this would not be happening. Why must men destroy what they do not understand? His life taken by those he came to save, Jesus died.

And, yet, with his death, Jesus offered to those who took his life, and to each of us, a transcending gift. He became a bridge by which mankind could, trusting in Him with the innocence of a child, reach out and touch the hand of God.

by Eugenia S. Hunt

Christmas enters the hearts of children and showers them with wonder, excitement, and magic confined only the limitation of their own imagination.

It comes to the aged with memories, a renewed moment of laughter, a twinkle filling a tired eye, as long ago entwines with today, shared in stories for the young to cherish.

Its joy visits the sick and broken, bringing into each life a simple, attainable pleasure...peace.

Touching each heart, it delivers to the scorned, understanding, and to the lonely, warmth and companionship.

The story of Christ's birth causes the Prodigal to reflect on the joy of unity, the sharing with loves neglected, the wonder of his fellowman.

God touches the hearts of mankind reminding a weary world to look fully into His face, forgetting the cares of earth, rendering them small, when cradled in His wondrous gift of Love.

by Eugenia S. Hunt

Asleep on God's shoulder

Nestled there,

A tiny Babe

With down soft hair.

Quietly, the sound

Of a tinkling bell,

The rhythm soon

Beginning to swell.

Carried high

Swaying to and fro,

Dancing along

O're a rainbow.

Gently waking

Not a single tear,

His birthday calling

Touched His ear.

One Little Angel

To earth, on a Dove,

Bringing with Him

Eternal Love.

My Wish For You

May this Christmas be a year of cherished memories for you and your family. May you discover the meaning of Christmas and may Christ be with all of you throughout a lifetime of Christmas memories to come!

My Bio

Born in the small town of Pendleton, South Carolina, in 1950, I was the oldest of two, five years my sister's senior. It was a wonderful place to grow up where the entire town raised its children. I was always surrounded by people who loved and looked out for me. I graduated from High School with the same people who were in my kindergarten class. At 58, my childhood friends are still my friends. I feel so fortunate to have known such a childhood.

After college, I worked at Clemson University until May 1972. At that time, I married and lived in Glyfada, 22 miles from Athens, Greece for two years...via USAF. We then moved to North Dakota for another two years before returning to South Carolina.

We divorced after 16 years and two children. I married my best friend two years later and moved to Florida in 1988 and together we have raised my husband's son and daughter and my son and daughter...one federal officer, one pastor's wife, one sixth grade school teacher, and the other, after working for Florida Power and Light since age 19, is now with AT&T. In 1996, I adopted my step daughter. We are blessed with four grandsons and one granddaughter.

In 1999, we became foster parents with the Children's Home Society and had a number of children under our roof in the next 5 years. In 2001, we adopted a 13 year old girl, whom we first met at the age of 11, and is now 21. I also have spent more time in a courtroom than I care to think about, fighting for the rights of the children in our care. In 2004, I turned in my license so that I could be a full time Mom to our special needs daughter and keep our infant granddaughter five days a week while her mother was teaching.

Bill, my husband, is a retired USAF Air Traffic Controller. He is now working out of the country, on Ascension Island, with Computer Science Raytheon, as their chief controller, contracted out of Patrick AFB, Florida. This enables him to continue to do the job he loves, air traffic, and aid the military. He flies in and out on furlough and I handle things here at home. I jokingly call myself a Single Married Woman.

Actually, I am a retired Accountant/Credit Manager, now a housewife, where I enjoy writing, singing, piano, and sewing. I have had numerous poems and short stories published and have sung in churches and for church organizations for years, as well as weddings, a couple of variety shows, and even at my daughter's, and later my son's, weddings, one of the hardest things I have EVER done. We are members of a Baptist church where I am a soloist and sing in the choir. I am also a member of the Women's Bible Study Group and work on the Mission's Committee.

And, last but not least, we have two singing dogs. Raven is a thirteen year old Skipperkee/Chow with bucked teeth and attitude and Whisper, our nine pound poodle, who thinks himself a Doberman.

I have been Mom To The Zoo since the morning after our wedding. My friend, Lee, who was staying with our four children and two dogs answered the phone from a sound sleep, "Hunt Zoo, Zookeeper Speaking."

My life has involved many changes and avenues that I would never have dreamed of and has given me challenges that I never thought I was equal to. But, I have found that God has a plan and, if you follow His lead, you can handle anything he puts in your hands. However, you have to first learn to listen to Him. No matter what we want from life, it must come in His time. He has given my husband and me more than we could have began to imagine back in high school and we have found that what we thought was so important for our futures back then was nothing to what we have done so far. At 58, I have learned from our foster children, to look forward to the future and the next challenge with enthusiasm and excitement. If they can trust and love us after what the world has dealt them, we can surely tackle whatever lies ahead with ease. Life is a series of learning experiences and I continue to find life to be both a challenge and a joy which grows with each passing year. I learn more and more about myself with each passing day!

Jeanie