Christmas Poem

With childlike faith I scribbled my note

and sealed it with a kiss.

All red and green with

wishes and dreams,

I mailed to Santa my list.

Each Christmas came and with it gifts,

some sought and some not.

Tin doll house,

a “Timey Tell” doll,

some loved;  some that time forgot.

With each breath held and gift opened

this secret hope did yearn:

that I had been

good enough to get

the gifts I’d tried to earn.

Not just Santa I wanted to please,

but  the dad behind the beard.

To gain a nod,

a smile at best,

my sweetest prize from year to year.

With childlike faith I received a note,

a book signed in love.

All red and black,

truth front to back,

a promise from Father above.

And on that day He came with gifts

that by His Son’s blood He’d bought.

Garments of salvation,

faith, fruit, and life,

love and plans beyond my thought.

These gifts He freely gave to me,

and yet I still did yearn

to be the child

good enough to keep

these gifts I never could earn.

I sweated and worked hard to please

the Presence behind the present.

To gain a nod,

a smile at best,

through works of flesh and conscience.

By works and strife – myself betrayed,

for I could not get it right.

In frustrated angst,

in pride I tried

to tame myself by self’s might.

And then like Christmas morn’ again,

with childlike faith could see

I held a beautiful, long unopened  gift

now revealed in me:  freedom’s  key.

For in the Gift of God’s sweet Son

comes the fullness of His grace

to fill me up,

to set me free

to walk in God’s rest of faith.

Joy spilling forth from deep within,

this Gift in me aptly fit

to be my strength,

my crown, my all,

all year long my Christmas Spirit.


Copyright 2008 Sharon Denise Dorminy