Hi Friends,
This postcard is was sent out in December of 2022. Click on the postcard to get a high-resolution image for your Sunday bulletin or Church newsletter.
The postcard has a poem from the 1908 issue of Unity magazine. The poem was the lead article in that issue. You can get a PDF of that issue at: www.truthunity.net/monthly-magazine/1908-12-unity
The last stanza says something that I often overlook:
“Believe you were sent from God’s fair firmament to aid and ennoble the earth.”
What exactly is God’s fair firmament? And how is it that we are sent by God to aid and ennoble the earth? Could it be that we have forgotten or overlooked from where we came and for which we are sent to do? We don’t know. But we have some clues ...
The Christmas story, as all know, has images of travel from afar — The angel Gabriel visiting Elizabeth and Mary, Mary and Joseph traveling to Bethlehem, the shepherds from their fields and the wise men from the east. All of them move from one fair firmament to another in response to God’s call. And we are blessed by them.
It just may be that the Christmas message means that, in some mysterious way, we also travel afar each Advent season to aid and ennoble the human family, the earth and all creation.
I hope this is a blessing to you.
Here is the original poem. You will see that it includes a stanza that I did not include in the postcard.
Whenever the Christmas season
Lends lustre and peace to the year,
And the ling-long-ling of the bells that ring,
Tell only of joy and cheer;
I hear in the sweet wild music
These words, and I hold them true,
“The Christ who was born on Christmas morn
Did only what you can do.”Each soul that has breath and being
Is touched with heaven’s own fire.
Each living man is a part of the plan
To lift the world up higher.
No matter how narrow your limits,
Go forth and make them broad !
You are every one the daughter or son —
Crown Prince or Princess of God.Have you sinned? It is only an error —
Your spirit is pure and white;
It is Truth’s own ray and will find its way
Back into the path of right.
Have you failed? It is only in seeming—
The triumph will come at length.
You are born to succeed — you will have what you need,
If you will believe in your strength.No matter how poor your record —
Christ lives in the heart of you,
And the shadow will roll up and off from your soul
If you will but own the true;
For “Christ” means the spirit of goodness,
And all men are good at the core.
Look searchingly in thro’ the coating of sin,
And lo! there is Truth to adore.Believe in yourself and your motives,
Believe in your strength and your worth,
Believe you were sent from God’s fair firmament To aid and ennoble the earth.
Believe in the Saviour within you —
Know Christ and your spirit are one.
Stand forth defined by your own noble pride,
And whatever you ask shall be done.
Click here to see other postcards.
Download PDF the 1908 Christmas poem as it was printed in Unity magazine
