A Christmas Card From Me To You (A Little Early)

[to the children when they're well again, forever]

"we shall meet on that beautiful shore."

-Old American hymn, In The Sweet Bye and Bye

(sung by Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson and generations...lbut most beautiful when sung by Dolly...)*

In Heaven's toyshop we may see

some things we missed

on Christmas Eve:

or Christmas morning it may be

whenever you woke up to see

a something bright but something missed

I made a list and this is it:

the rosy doll in pink, not blue

the bracelet bright as morning dew

the little chair and table set

the playhouse, tree house, I forget

what was it that I wanted then,

only to play oh, let's pretend

and there's no price at all for that

not even now and I think that

if we imagine we can see

the whole world with a Christmas Tree

then there'll be stars in every sky

and no one left that has to cry

or has to wonder wonder why.

and wishes will come thick you know

as candy coated sugar snows

and bowls of fudge and icing too

we'll lick the spoon and when we're through 

play King and Queen of gum drop lands

dispensing gifts on every hand

and breathe in balsam, fir and pine

and feast on snow cream so refined

and find there's freshness in each day

and cherry bright, find things to praise

with angels ringed with holly, glad

and no one will be tired or sad

we'll light the candles evermore

and drift in boats to golden shores

we sang about when we were young

and Christmases had just begun!

mary angela douglas 30 august 2014;rev. 2 september 2014

Note On The Poem:

*You can find this beautiful hymn (In the Sweet Bye and Bye) sung by Cash, Parton, Nelson (individually) on You Tube, if you wish, in slightly different versions..It's on the Cash album "My Mother's Hymn Book".  I also thought of the song "The Mother and Child Reunion" by Paul Simon..and of all the parents who lose their children too early from cancer and for other reasons- there is a reunion in the Forever and a Heaven where all disappointments will be transformed into eternal joy.  I believe this with all my heart.

The Sweet Bye and Bye (also spelled, The Sweet By and By, bye and bye, in any case meaning, in a short while (as in after our relatively short sojourn on earth...) is not a cathedral song (though I love those too, especially all the carols).

It is a song sung from time immemorial in the out of the way tiny American country churches under the shade trees when people gathered to comfort themselves after country hardships with the vision of the hereafter when the "circle [would] be unbroken".

This is a deep theme in American old hymns and gospel tunes and when people make fun of Christianity I just feel oh you don't know how heartfelt these feelings are and how they get passed down from generation to generation and how I feel when I remember hearing my great grandfather (Mr. W. R. White of Prescott, Arkansas) whom I never met wanted Nearer My God To Thee played at his funeral, his favorite hymn.

If you find on dvd or VHS the beautiful film The Trip to Bountiful (taken from Horton Foote's play) and starring Geraldine Page ,check the opening scene with the girl running through the Texas fields of bluebells while the hymn Softly and Tenderly Jesus is Calling is sung in the most heartfelt ethereal and homesick for Heaven way I have ever heard.  It will make you weep no matter what you think of Christians.

Or even if you don't think of them at all.