The Lovely Light of Christmas

        Light at this special time of year is seen in so many lovely ways.  Of course, crowning them all is Jesus -- Light's advent in the flesh (as my husband's previous poem has it.) 


        But I can't help noticing the way God's love expressed in everyday life gives a special glow to things. When someone who is not expecting a gift receives one, face all lit up with joy. When a neighbor who has been cross brings a home-baked treat to our door, hoping we'll be pleased, seeking to make amends and express Jesus' peace and good will to all.  A child's sparkling eyes when they see the dazzling light display at our local library. Our mail carrier who is doing an extra route so a fellow worker can go home for Christmas, the look on  his face when hearing, "God bless you for your good deed."


        May that special light that is seen during Christmas, the light of God's love for the whole world, illumine all we do this coming year. 

God's Greatest Gift

                                                         




                                                         John Robert Howell












The muezzin of the infinite and light-emblazoned firmament
Marked the nightly vigils' silent and meditative hours
Of those wakeful, watchful sheperds, Scientic avatars,
Who pondered not dusty constellations of earth's deceptions,
But the higher lessons witnessed in God's refulgence,
Thus to behold the glow of that eldritch eastern star,
Herald of Jesus' nativity, Light's advent in the flesh.
That event was once and not to  be repeated,
Yet for those who receptive hearts wander wearily
Among the darkly lighted trails and travails of mortality
The promise of that holy dawn blesses all eternally.

Our Father's Chastening

                                    "As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten"
                                                     (Revelation 3:19)






After God's chastening is over


What then for one is left?


Many things, worth more than gold.


And crowning them all must be


The dawning, "He did what He did


Out of love for me."


Removing those things that


Stand between us and Him


Can leave one feeling punished, bereft;


But when process divine has run its course,


Is perfected, and at last is through,


What thoughts of praise and awe there are.


And a person may even wonder,


Is this the way angels feel about You?

The Right Viewpoint

                                                           John Robert Howell






Either God is the absolute All or He is not.
That He is is a starting point, one without fault.
Any middle muddle is another wife of Lot,
Hesitant, unsure--and then a pillar of salt.


That error out there is but an error within.
Faults found in others start out from our home.
God, pure and everywhere, knows only what is akin
And makes us insensible to mortal mind's drone.