An Unopened Christmas Card

 

 

 

An Unopened Christmas Card

Proverbs 17:17

An unopened Christmas card
From his beloved peer,
Address fading and tear tinted,
Sat on his mantel for three years.

He touched it
From time to time
In a slow gentle pensive way,
Tempted to open at Christmastime.

His intense heartache:
His as-long-as-he-could-remember buddy
Became ill and passed before Christmas.
So this procrastination he could not amend.

But THIS Christmas morning,
He was excited, wholly.
Heart racing with trembling hands,
He opened it slowly.

“I’m ready to go to Heaven.
You are the best friend
A person could ever have.”
That’s what he’d penned.

Inside a small inserted prayer.
He read it again. He read it again.
His pal had spent his life that way.
The meaning sinking in:

“Lord,
Help me remember that nothing
Is going to happen to me today
That you and I together can’t handle.
— Old preacher’s greeting to a new day”

Placing the Christmas card on the mantel
He was overcome with gladness.
Thinking: “What a wonderful friend!”
Gone was his grief. Gone was his sadness!

      — Charles B. Mayes 

An Unopened Christmas Card © 2021  by Charles B. Mayes.  All Rights Reserved.

Graphic:  Satheeshsankaran – pixabay.com

“Friends love through all kinds of weather, and families stick together in all kinds of trouble” [Holy Bible-Proverbs 17:17-MSG]

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

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As If Watching A Movie

“I’m sorry that it took me so long to thank you for your wonderful gift of poetry.  As I was reading your poem, [Independence Day] the images of the people celebrating Independence Day and being proud of this day came to me as if I was watching a nice short movie. I was very moved.” Daisuke (Luke) S., Mountain View, CA.

Very Moving

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Complimentary in Faith

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Other poems are available in a chapbook titled, A New Year Resolution and Other Poems (including The Missionaries) by Charles B. Mayes. It contains 22 poems. The foreword is written by Dr. P.T. Mammen, Senior Pastor of San Bruno (CA) International Christian Center.”

” . . . creative energy evidenced through every line . . ” – Dr. P.T. Mammen

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