Getting inspired by God

In-Spired
by Mary Harwell Sayler

I love You, Lord.
I love The Way
You write
right through my hands
to touch
unknown readers’ eyes,
and immediately,
they see!
They love you, Lord.



©2015, Mary Sayler 

From Gospel to prose poem

The Parable of the Sower
prose poem by Mary Harwell Sayler prayer-a-phrased from Gospel readings in Matthew 13:3-23; Mark 4:3-20; Luke 8:5-15

A farmer went out to sow,

and some say he was stupid or careless or wasteful with the seed, which he let fall all over the just and the unjust. Some of the seeds clung like stick-tights – hitchhiker seeds that stuck around for centuries until inspiring Swiss naturalist George de Mestral to invent Velcro – sticky seeds that produced weeds like burdock known for medicinal purposes and sometimes planted purposely as a vegetable to be eaten or treated like the sunflower family to which burdock belongs.

Some seed fell on hard ground –

paths too often taken to be open to anything new. Some fell on stone, sliding off in rain or finding a crack to sink into then growing roots strong enough to split a rock, which isn’t easy.

Some of the seeds settled into nestling soil so good for growing that thorns liked it, too, and rose up – tall, crowded, dense, and as overwhelming as fear or worry and as brightly colored as almost anything urgent.

But some seeds found a fine place to light, take root, bear fruit, and feed you, me, the birds, and anyone else who’s hungry before sending out new seeds that the farmer went out to sow.


©2015, Mary Harwell Sayler, poet-author has been focusing on connecting poetry and the poetic word of God as shown in this prose poem, originally published in the Spring 2013 issue of Penwood Review and included in the book of Bible-based poems, Outside Eden, published in 2014 by Kelsay Books.

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How to write a book proposal

Before you take time to write a full-length book of fiction or nonfiction, you can save yourself time and worry by writing a book proposal. This will help you to think through your book, keep your writing on track, then propose your book in a professional manner to the editor of a traditional or indie book publishing company.

A previous article "Basic Steps for Writing & Marketing" will give you an idea of what to expect as you aim for traditional publishing markets, which the e-book, Christian Writer's Guide discusses too, along with everything else you need to get started as a freelance or assignment writer. Also, see "Outline or Synopsis" for information on preparing an outline for your nonfiction book or a synopsis for your novel.

In addition to an outline or synopsis, your book proposal package will include one to three chapters of your book, depending on the publisher’s preference as shown in their writers’ guidelines. You’ll also need to include a one-page cover letter and a book proposal sheet with headings relevant to your manuscript as shown below:

...

[Place your name and contact information across the top of each page as you would for a letterhead.]

Book Proposal for (name of the company that your research shows might be interested)

Title: (Check online bookstores to see if anyone else has used the title you want. Then place your catchy but relevant title here.)

Author: (Type your full name as you want it to appear on the manuscript.)

Theme: (For Christian writers, a favorite Bible verse such as Romans 8:28 can provide an excellent theme. Regardless of your choice, a theme and purpose will help you to keep your writing focused from beginning to end.)

Purpose: (An incomplete sentence or phrase with no punctuation usually works well here, for example, “to strengthen faith” or “to promote unity among Christians.”)

Genre: (Fiction, Nonfiction, or Poetry, but if fiction, add another heading entitled Setting.)

Book Summary (for nonfiction book or Story Line for fiction: Summarize the book in a sentence or two or a brief paragraph written to encourage an editor to read more.)

Audience (or Readership): (State here what group or age of readers you aim to reach. For instance, a nonfiction book might be aimed at pastors, youth workers, or general laity, whereas a children’s book might appeal to a 2 to 4-year span among toddlers, preschoolers, or school children, for example, 6 to 8 or 8 to 12.)

Length: (Put the expected number of double-spaced pages or the expected word count.)

Marketability (or Comparative Analysis): (Base this brief information on what you find as you research your topic and title in Internet bookstores. Provide any similar or competitive titles and publication dates. If you believe your idea will fill a unique need, say why.)

Platform (or Ideas for Promotion): (If you already have a following or have established an online presence in a blog, website, or profile page on the major social networks, include that information here.)

Author Bio (or About the Author): (Group prior publishing experiences by genre and/or age group. Briefly provide relevant information such as your education, research, teaching experience, or workshops you have led on your topic.)

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© 2015, Mary Harwell Sayler

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You can write devotionals!

Writing devotionals to uplift your readers can uplift your faith too!

Devote yourself! Begin with a commitment to devote quiet time each day to praying, Bible reading, and meditating on what God says to you and wants you to say to others.

Take note! Keep a notebook nearby to write down each inspired thought God puts on your mind. Also, a sturdy wide-margin Bible in your favorite translation will encourage you to interact with Holy Scripture and respond to the Holy Spirit as you pencil notes in the margins. Later, those notes can be developed into a devotional poem or article shaped to fit this typical pattern:

Title – For individual articles you plan to send to a devotional magazine, the title will usually be a short phrase or single key word. For a full-length, one-year book of devotionals, your title needs to reflect your 365-day theme and purpose such as Devoted to Marriage: Devoted to God. Each devotional would then use that day's date as the title.

Bible verse – After the title comes a Bible verse from which the entire devotional flows. If you’re writing for Catholic readers, the New American Bible, Revised Edition (NABRE) makes your best choice for quotes, but the New Jerusalem Bible (NJB) and The Message, Catholic Edition can work too. For evangelical Christian readers, the main choices will likely be the New American Standard Bible (NASB), New International Version (NIV), English Standard Version (ESV), or New King James Version (NKJV.)

For interdenominational or ecumenical choices, consider the New Revised Standard Version, (NRSV) Common English Bible, or King James Version (KJV.) Since the KJV lives on and on in the public domain, you don't have to get a publisher's permission to quote large portions of that Bible. However, most translations let you use 250 verses without having to get permission from the publisher, and some permit up to 500 verses or more. To find out, look in the front matter of the edition you choose.

Text – With God and a biblical passage or verse to guide your writing, the main body of your devotional might be a poetic insight, a prayer, or a reflection on God's word. To help your readers fully enter that experience, avoid abstracts. Use active verbs and concrete nouns as you recall a true-to-life event in around 300 words that illustrate your chosen scripture. A “take-away” will also occur if your words, thoughts, and comparisons show your readers how to apply the Bible to their lives.

Prayer – In one or two sentences, a prayer ties together all of the above and helps your readers to seek God’s guidance as you've surely done!

Editorial guidance helps, too, as you follow a publisher's guidelines. If you know which publishing company you hope will accept your work, find their website and follow their writers’ guidelines. If you don’t know where to start, ask friends to save publications that use devotionals. Also, study the periodicals, books, and writers’ guidelines produced or sponsored by your church’s denominational headquarters.


©2015, Mary Harwell Sayler

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How to deal with writer’s block

If you’re staring at your keyboard and would rather wipe it than type on it, this could be a sign of writer’s block. Will it last forever? No. Is there anything you can do about it? Sure.

It’s like being boxed between cars in a parallel parking space. Tight, but you have choices: You can wait until the owner of the other car comes along to free you. Or you can inch your vehicle by increments until you wiggle out.

Trying to think of something new to do might sound like an experiment in frustration when your thoughts already seem blah or singularly uninspired, but don't fret. Remember: Wiggle.

Do something different. If you can’t go anywhere, stand on a chair or stretch out on the floor, but get a fresh perspective. Look up and notice the texture of the ceiling. Look down. Describe your feet. Look around and notice the sound, smell, sight, taste, or feel of objects surrounding you every day. Munch your salad slowly and identify the flavors and textures. Compare. Listen to the hum of a washing machine, a fan, a furnace, an air conditioner, then fill in words that fit the beat.

Take a mini-vacation. Getting away from normal surroundings can help you to chip big chunks from a writer’s block even if just for an afternoon of vacating your premises. (Pun intended.) Use your writer’s block as the impetus for touring that museum in town you keep meaning to visit. Or go to a movie with sub-titles. Check out a library book of poems totally unlike anything you usually read or write. Pick up a travel magazine, and look at photographs of enticing places. Search for a video of a country you hope to visit or, better yet, one you would never dare to set a sandal inside.

Consider your interests and available options. Writer’s block is like a box every poet or writer steps into occasionally, but you don’t have to stay there. Even if you’re really boxed in, you have choices. Jump out. Find a different perspective on whatever is familiar, safe, or boring!

Mingle! Get around people. Go to a mall. Help out at a Christian service center. Attend a Bible study. Worship with a church you have never visited.

Take care of yourself. If none of the above appeals to you, lounge on the deck. Rock out on the porch. Pray for the Lord to speak to you even as you sleep. Take a nap.


[The original version of this article appeared here on March 5, 2010, entitled “Writer’s Block In A Box.”]

©2015, Mary Harwell Sayler, poet-author, is on a mission to help other Christian Poets & Writers through blogs, writing resources, and e-books such as the Christian Writer’s Guide and Christian Poet's Guide to Writing Poetry.

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Writing to heal the Body of Christ

Are you concerned about the decline in church attendance in almost every denomination? Are you as distressed as I am about the divisions among Christians? Do you wish you could do something. As communicators for Christ, we can! For example:

• We can write honest, accurate, uplifting poems, devotionals, books, and stories to strengthen the faith of our readers.
• We can visit the websites of each denomination and study their statements of beliefs then write to overcome assumptions, errors, or misunderstanding.
• We can write about what we love in the Christian community and encourage forgiveness, acceptance, and respect for one another.
• We can research what the Bible says about fellowship in Christ and write about what draws us together and makes us One.
• We can investigate areas of dissension and pray to provide a voice of reason, balance, and healing.

If we write fiction, we can do so with a healing theme and purpose. For example, we might set a novel in another era where people dealt with similar concerns or write a Romeo and Juliette story between two lovers from opposing backgrounds, say, during the Reformation.

Most importantly, we can pray for discernment, expecting God to answer, and we can examine our minds and motives as we ask ourselves:

• Does my writing stir up debates or stir and quicken readers to consider differences from a spiritual perspective?

• Will my words help readers from diverse cultures to accept the forgiveness, redemption, and salvation of Jesus Christ, perhaps by showing that love and those blessings through story people, personal experiences, biblical truths, and practical suggestions?

• Does my writing speak ill of others or speak peace? In what ways can my poems, stories, devotionals, articles, and books bring reconciliation and healing to denominational or other church factions?

• The Bible gives us the wonderful analogy of One Body with many parts. Where do we see ourselves in the Body of Christ? Are any parts missing?

• Obviously, an elbow is not a toe, nor an ear a shinbone! But each part is vital to the whole. Can our writings show this? Can you think of another analogy that might speak to people today to show the need Christ has for each one of us to be One in Him?


©2015, Mary Harwell Sayler

For general help with your writing, revising, and more, order the Christian Writers’ Guide e-book.

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5 common mistakes in writing nonfiction for kids

For a couple of decades, I read entries in the children’s literature category of an international writing contest. Each year, I hoped to find well-written nonfiction articles and interesting book chapters excerpted from dynamic nonfiction. Sometimes I did, and sometimes manuscripts looked promising, but many suffered from these 5 common flaws:

1. In an obvious effort to be fresh and lively, writers often started their nonfiction for children with scenes straight out of a novel. For example, they might begin with dialogue, a problem, a child’s thoughts, or an amusing conversation that read like the opening of a sit-com. Often, a main character asked a grandparent about a subject soon to be addressed but, unfortunately, not nearly soon enough. These novel openings sounded good at first but quickly brought confusion, especially since readers did not know what the subject actually was unless they read an entire page or two or three.

2. Another problem arose with credibility and accuracy – or lack thereof. With no bibliography to cite sources at the end of a manuscript, I couldn't tell if the author had spent weeks searching, sorting, and sifting through reliable information or merely passed along opinions and assumptions as fact.

3. A more common flaw occurred in the quality of writing. For example, the use of passive voice seemed particularly prevalent with phrase after phrase stating, “It is” or “There was.” Such a passive voice seemed to speak for a passive writer, who did not take just a little more time to search for active verbs and strong nouns that readers could readily picture.

4. Speaking of pictures, young readers need to be able to envision what they’re reading whether the pages contain illustrations or not. For the writing to be clear, each sentence usually needs an easy-to-picture noun that brings to mind a person, place, or thing, but not a vague idea. An active verb can then put that noun into motion. If a nonfiction manuscript happened to be the text for a children’s picture book, the mental images on every page became vital or, voila, no picture book.

5. That seems obvious, but, fortunately, so do some solutions to each of the problems mentioned. Most writers have fine minds and can figure these things out for themselves once they recognize a problem or even know to look for one. Often, though, writers got caught up in stories they couldn't wait to share with their children or grandchildren, forgetting kids of all ages have their own interests and preferences, and are waiting for the next enticing subject to connect with and enjoy.

©2015, Mary Harwell Sayler
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Spiritual Ministry Gifts and writing

Christian writers with creative ideas sometimes find it difficult to decide which writing project to focus on first. Quite likely all of your ideas have the potential to strengthen the Body of Christ, draw readers to God, and/ or help other people in general, so you won’t go wrong with any Bible-based theme or treatment. Nevertheless, one manuscript might be well-timed and another not. Or, one idea might fill you with enthusiasm (a word rooted in “en theos” – in God), whereas another project might leave you feeling ho-hum or put you into a panic. Regardless:

When you ask God to direct your work, expect that to happen.

Since the Holy Spirit promises to give every Christian one or more Spiritual Ministry Gifts, recognizing those gifts will guide you and give you insights into yourself, your work, and the writing to which you have been called.

We talked about this a little in a previous article on your “Writing talent and spiritual gifts,” so you might want to re-read that short discussion. Since then, I've had the opportunity to take a Spiritual Ministry Gifts test that differs from one I took years ago, and the current results confirmed the very projects to which I am now drawn.

Most likely, you also have some ideas that interest you more than others, but just in case you have not yet taken a test to discern your God-given gifts and confirm your next project, I did an Internet search to see which Spiritual Ministry Gifts test to recommend. As it turned out, I found several! So I took them all, and here’s what I found:

This excellent site provided by Ken Ellis not only has a Spiritual Gifts Test with online analysis but also a separate test for new Christians and another for youth. Since you’re encouraged to respond quickly and not over-think it, the main test takes only 15 to 20 minutes with immediate results and hotlinks to explain each gift with ideas and relevant scriptures. The results felt right-on, even though I initially had trouble responding to “Always” for areas that interested me.

Spiritual Gifts tested on this website did not include obvious gifts of healing or prophecy but, instead, clarified tasks that typically need gifted workers within the church.

Another site I recommend does not provide a test but offers insights and information relating to your Spiritual Gifts and Leadership, including definitions, scriptural references, and practical instructions.

The Spiritual Gifts Inventory by Paulist Fathers includes a test, which, like the others, encourages you to respond spontaneously and honestly to get the most accurate results. The site also includes helpful information and instruction for using your ministry gifts.

As you take a Spiritual Ministry Gift test, keep in mind, there are no right or wrong answers!

Also, this may not be true of other sites, but the hotlinks above give you and only you an analysis, so no one else needs to know the results. What you do with that information is up to God and you and the writing ministry to which you feel most drawn.


©2015, Mary Harwell Sayler

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Reading and writing Bible stories for children

Recently I received review copies of two Bible storybooks from Tyndale Kids: My Keepsake Bible, which I reviewed on the Bible Reviewer blog, and Bible Favorites: One Sentence Storybooks, written by Nancy I. Sanders and illustrated by Hannah Wood.

Both of those editions have a fresh approach for presenting Bible stories to young children as I discussed a bit on the earlier review, but here I want to talk about the small boxed set of 10 stories told in one sentence because the author and artist managed to achieve an enviable level of simplicity.

That sounds odd, but try it!

Try taking a complicated Bible story and compressing it down to its essence.

Then try writing the story in one sentence.

Impossible it seems, and yet the writer managed to do this, not by including details but by removing everything except the most basic aspects of the story while giving the impression of far more.

To give you an example, the first story in the set, entitled The Sun and the Moon, encapsulates creation. The little booklet opens with the text, “God’s hand” and has a drawing of a hand on the opposite page. Next “God’s hand made the sun” shows both on the adjacent page, followed by “God’s hand made the sun and the moon,” then “God’s hand made the sun and the moon and the earth.”

Those few words put across the larger idea that God created the heavens and the earth and all that is in them.

Besides providing young children with that important information, the little booklet has a page with key words to help sight-reading-spelling-recognition, followed by “One Truth to Learn,” “One Verse to Say” or memorize, and “One Prayer to Pray” with a child as you read.

That basic format continues for the other stories in the set, which includes:

Two Mice and the Ark
Moses and the Bush
David and the Giant
The City Wall
The Star and the Kings
Jesus on the Water
The Good Shepherd
The Sad Son (aka prodigal)
The Angel and the Cave

Each story is written super tightly and well with lively drawings that also have few lines, but I wish the set had a different story for King David. I’ve noticed this same decision made for several of the Bible storybooks I’ve reviewed where the single story of many possibilities shows little David overcoming the big, bad Goliath. It seems to me that, if only one story can be included for David, it might be one with a more positive impact, for instance, his care for the sheep, his loyalty to King Saul, his confession of wrong-doing, his poetry writing, or something that does not involve hitting, as here, or killing, as shown in other Bible storybooks for children.

Despite my disappointment over that choice, here and elsewhere, I very much appreciate the choice to include the story of Jesus’ walking on the water. Told in a single, highly effective sentence, the story comes down to this:

The men
in the boat
saw Jesus
walk on water.

Surely anyone of any age who reads that sentence will recognize that something amazing is happening! something unique that only God can do.

That simple sentence also reminds us, as poets and writers, that we don’t need to embellish or strain for effect but to get the facts straight and keep it simple, so the truth of the story can come through as happens in this highly recommended set.

©2015, Mary Harwell Sayler 

Bible Favorites: One Sentence Storybooks, set of 10 small paperbacks



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Enjoying The Things of Earth

The Bible often mentions (and pastors often stress) the need to be in this world without being worldly. Obviously that danger exists, since we’re such sensory people, but most Christians have long learned to be wary of that pitfall – perhaps too much so!

The thing is: God created our senses. We hear, touch, smell, taste, and see a sensory-rich world around us, so God surely did not create such lavishness for us to ignore. Although temptations can come through our senses, our Creator does not tempt us! God is love. And, more than any earthly parent, our Heavenly Father wants to give us good gifts to receive with thanks and enjoyment.

As poets and writers, we draw on these senses each time we write or speak words into being. Nevertheless, I haven’t thought much about the need to enjoy – really enjoy – the things of the earth, except to note that one of my all-time favorite poems is “Love Calls Us to the Things of This World” by the Pulitzer prized poet Richard Wilbur. So when Crossway released the book The Things of Earth: Treasuring God by Enjoying His Gifts by Joe Rigney, I eagerly requested a review copy, which the publisher kindly sent.

If you have ever felt guilty for enjoying life and its gifts, read this book! If you think holiness cannot abide laughter, read this book. If you merely tolerate each day, read this book.

As Joe Rigney wisely says, “we can see that God is meticulous in his attention to detail” so that even “every ant has a genealogy. There are no rogue molecules. There are no random atoms. There are no wayward snowflakes. Everything has purpose. Everything has design. Everything has intent. We may not always know exactly what it is, but we can rest in the knowledge that God is working all things according to the counsel of his will, that his purposes are always for our good.”

Along those lines, this highly readable text develops a theology called “Christian hedonism,” which greatly differs from the no-no kind, especially if we see all of creation as “communication from the triune God.”

God the Father has given us a mind, body, and spirit akin to God’s own, so we rightly pull ourselves together as one person in three. As Professor Rigney says, “We don’t set God and his gifts in opposition to each other, as though they are rivals,” nor must we disintegrate in opposition to ourselves. “When we love God supremely and fully, we are able to integrate our joy in God and our joy in his gifts, receiving the gifts as shafts of his glory.”

And “So embrace your creatureliness. Don’t seek to be God. Instead, embrace the glorious limitations and boundaries that God has placed on you as a character in his story.” Then write your story or poem or article, and read this book!


©2015, Mary Harwell Sayler

The Things of Earth: Treasuring God by Enjoying His Gifts, paperback


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Step into the New Year: writing, revising, and marketing

Preliminary Steps:

Study classical and popular works in your favorite writing genre.

Consider what draws readers to a particular poem, story, article, or book.

Study magazines and other publications you like to read.

Get familiar with the book catalogues of publishers whose work you like.

Consider potential gaps that your story, poem, article, or book might fill.


Writing Plan:

Plan your fiction or nonfiction manuscript before you begin.

Decide on a theme, purpose, and reading audience.

Thoroughly research your topic or story setting.

Outline each article or nonfiction book.

Write a synopsis of your novel in present tense.

Both the synopsis and the outline should be from 1 to 5 pages.


Writing, Revising, and Marketing:

Let your writing flow without criticizing yourself, then let your work rest.

Later read those pages as if someone else had written them.

Read your work aloud and notice if anything seems “off.”

Pinpoint a problem, and you will usually find a solution.

Revise to make the manuscript your best before you send it to a publisher.

Find and follow writers’ guidelines located on the company's website.

Query several editors at once about an idea or book proposal, but when you submit your actual manuscript, send it to only one editor at a time.

When mailing your manuscript by postal service, enclose a self-addressed, stamped envelope (SASE) to cover its potential return.

Keep track of where, when, and to whom you mailed each manuscript.

If you don’t hear back in 3 months, follow up with a brief, polite email.

While you wait to hear from one editor, query another editor about your next idea.

Repeat the above steps.


©2015, Mary Harwell Sayler 

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Joy to the World

If you have heard the Christmas story your whole life, as I have, you might think, as I did, that you have considered almost every aspect of the Nativity. Nevertheless, I requested a review copy of the new book, Joy to the World: How Christ’s Coming Changed Everything (And Still Does), published by Image books. I figured that if anyone would have new insights or a fresh perspective into this vital, 2,000-year old story, it would be Bible scholar, Christian author, former pastor, Catholic theologian, and university professor Scott Hahn.

From the first chapter “A Light Goes On in Bethlehem,” we receive this insightful light:

“The Christmas story has an unconventional hero – not a warrior, not a worldly conqueror, not an individual at all, but rather a family…. We see the swaddling bands and know they’re for a baby, but someone had to do the swaddling…. We hear tell of the manger-crib where he lay, but someone needed to place him there…. The family is the key to Christmas. The family is the key to Christianity....

That, indeed, is one of the most profound implications of the Christmas story: that God had made his dwelling place among men, women, and children, and he called them – he calls us – to become his family, his holy household.”

Today, many people have no family. Many, including children in this country, have no home. They’re homeless, lonely, and alone.

“Without Christ, the world was a joyless place; and anyplace where he remains unknown and unaccepted is a joyless place. Everything has changed since Christ’s birth, but everything remains to be changed, as people come to receive the child in faith.”

With the joy of Christ in the world, no one needs to be without home or family. In the church, we can find loving, forgiving fellowship with one another as the Family of God. We can be grafted into Jesus’ family tree.

As Dr. Hahn points out, “The New Testament begins not with a discourse or a prophecy, not with theology or law, but with a simple declaration of family relationships.”

So the book of Matthew begins with a genealogy or, in Greek, a geneseos, which gives the root for genes, genetics, genomes, or generations and can be translated as “beginning” or “origin.” Therefore, “…the evangelist was suggesting a new Genesis, an account of the new creation brought about by Jesus Christ.” Likewise, “In the fourth Gospel, Saint John accomplishes something similar when he begins by echoing the first words of the Torah: ‘In the beginning’.”

In the book of Luke, we get Mary’s perspective and Jesus’ family line going back to Adam to show how Christ came for everyone. Matthew, however, wants to show his Jewish readers how they’re connected to Christ through their family heritage, and so his long list of begats begins with Abraham, the father of the Hebrew people.

“As the roll draws to its close, however, it identifies Joseph not as a father, but as ‘the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born who is called Christ’.” Dr. Hahn goes on to say, this “final link breaks with the preceding pattern. Joseph is not called father, but spouse. The evangelist wants to be perfectly clear that Joseph had no biological role to play in the conception of Jesus.”

When time came for the infant to be born, what a birth announcement! One angel visited the shepherds, as messengers from God often did in Old Testament Times, calming fears and announcing Good News. But this time, a multitude of heavenly hosts then appeared, singing “Glory to God in the highest,” and lighting up the whole sky with angels!

Later, when the magi visited the Holy Family, Matthew 2:10 reports, “When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy.” Dr. Hahn then asks us to “linger on that single line. For it captures the very moment when God gave ‘Joy to the World’ – not merely to Israel, but to the whole world: the nations, the foreigners, the Gentiles.”

In the Family of God, the church Body of Christ, love holds us together, and joy radiates from the center. Or, as Dr. Hahn says:

“If we truly celebrate Christmas, we’ll exude a joy that people will want to share.”

To be realistic, though, “there are those who would steal our joy by trying to steal our Christmas – by snickering at the lot of it: the Trinity, the virginal conception, the incarnation, the shepherds. How should we respond? By inviting them to the feast. By enjoying the feast ourselves, and by enjoying it for all of its infinite worth.”

Amen!

May your Christ-mass be filled with love and overflow with joy, joy, joy in Jesus’ Name.


©2014, Mary Harwell Sayler is an ecumenical Christian poet, writer, and lifelong lover of Christ, the Bible, and the church in all its parts.


Note from Mary: I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review, but you can order it from Amazon.

Joy to the World: How Christ’s Coming Changed Everything (And Still Does), hardback



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