The Little Matchgirl

On a cold New Year’s Eve, a poor girl tries to sell matches in the street. She is freezing badly, but she is afraid to go home because her father will beat her for not selling any matches. She takes shelter in a nook and lights the matches to warm herself. In their glow, she sees several lovely visions including a Christmas tree and a holiday feast. The girl looks skyward, sees a shooting star, and remembers her deceased grandmother saying that such a falling star means someone died and is going into Heaven. As she lights her next match, she sees a vision of her grandmother, the only person to have treated her with love and kindness. She strikes one match after another to keep the vision of her grandmother nearby for as long as she can. The child dies and her grandmother carries her soul to Heaven. The next morning, passers-by find the dead child in the nook, with rosy red cheeks and a smile on her face. They express sadness at her death and the burnt-out matches she must have used to warm herself, but they cannot know the wonderful visions she saw in her final moments or how gloriously she is celebrating the New Year with her grandmother.<br /><br /><br /><br /><object height="364" width="445"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/yUSzQBaWq0Q&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0&color1=0x5d1719&color2=0xcd311b&border=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/yUSzQBaWq0Q&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0&color1=0x5d1719&color2=0xcd311b&border=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="445" height="364"></embed></object><br />Another favorite of mine, but so sad.

The Little Matchgirl

On a cold New Year’s Eve, a poor girl tries to sell matches in the street. She is freezing badly, but she is afraid to go home because her f...

Read more »

Legend of the Candy Cane

Many years ago, a candy maker wanted to make a candy at Christmas time that would serve as a witness to his Christian faith. He wanted to incorporate several symbols for the birth, ministry and death of Jesus. He began with a stick of pure white hard candy; white to symbolize the Virgin Birth and the sinless nature of Jesus; hard to symbolize the solid rock, the foundation of the Church; firmness to represent the promise of God. The candymaker made the candy in the form of a "J" to represent the name of Jesus, who came to earth as our Savior. He thought it could also represent the staff of the Good Shepherd, with which he reached down into the ditches of the world to lift out the fallen lambs who, like all sheep, have gone astray. <br />Thinking that the candy was somewhat plain, the candymaker stained it with red stripes. He used three small stripes to show the stripes of the scourging Jesus received, by which we are healed. The large red stripe was for the blood shed by Christ on the cross so that we could have the promise of eternal life. Unfortunately, the candy became known as a candy cane - a meaningless decoration seen at Christmas time. But the true meaning is still there for those who have eyes to see and ears to hear. <br /><br /><a href="http://www.greetingspring.com/" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;" target="_blank"><img alt="GreetingSpring.com" border="0" src="http://www.greetingspring.com/files/anims/00000000/32_lg_clr.gif" /></a>There are several stories about the candy cane, and this is just one of them which I happened to enjoy. I found it at: <a href="http://home.att.net/~scorh3/CandyCane.html">http://home.att.net/~scorh3/CandyCane.html</a><br /><div class="zemanta-pixie" style="height: 15px; margin-top: 10px;"><a class="zemanta-pixie-a" href="http://www.zemanta.com/" title="Enhanced by Zemanta"><img alt="Enhanced by Zemanta" class="zemanta-pixie-img" src="http://img.zemanta.com/zemified_e.png?x-id=1eaa701c-9876-494d-a4d4-43d9ca2a5a7d" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; float: right;" /></a></div>

Legend of the Candy Cane

Many years ago, a candy maker wanted to make a candy at Christmas time that would serve as a witness to his Christian faith. He wanted to in...

Read more »

Christmas "2008"

<div><embed align="middle" flashvars="cy=bb&il=1&channel=3170534137710387640&site=widget-b8.slide.com" name="flashticker" quality="high" salign="l" scale="noscale" src="http://widget-b8.slide.com/widgets/slideticker.swf" style="height: 320px; width: 400px;" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent"></embed><br /><div style="text-align: left; width: 400px;"><a href="http://www.slide.com/pivot?cy=bb&at=un&id=3170534137710387640&map=1" target="_blank"><img border="0" ismap src="http://widget-b8.slide.com/p1/3170534137710387640/bb_t043_v000_s0un_f00/images/xslide1.gif" /></a> <a href="http://www.slide.com/pivot?cy=bb&at=un&id=3170534137710387640&map=2" target="_blank"><img border="0" ismap src="http://widget-b8.slide.com/p2/3170534137710387640/bb_t043_v000_s0un_f00/images/xslide2.gif" /></a> <a href="http://www.slide.com/pivot?cy=bb&at=un&id=3170534137710387640&map=F" target="_blank"><img border="0" ismap src="http://widget-b8.slide.com/p4/3170534137710387640/bb_t043_v000_s0un_f00/images/xslide42.gif" /></a></div></div>

Christmas "2008"

Read more »