The bells are ringing . . .

It’s funny how things work at times. I drove to City Hall to pay my electric bill in person today, since it was due and I wanted to avoid an overdue charge. But, when I got there (about 11:00 o’clock in the morning), I found the doors locked. The office was closed . . . due to an electrical outage. Hmm . . . How ironic.

I drove around the building and shoved my payment envelope into a drop box, since the drive-through window was closed also. The box looked a little beat-up, so here’s hoping they find my payment. I certainly don’t want to have my electricity turned off, especially now at Christmas time.

It’s hard to believe that Christmas is only three weeks away since we just celebrated Thanksgiving. That doesn’t leave much time for the busy rush that usually comes in getting ready for Christmas: shopping, baking, decorating, church services . . .

Each year at this time I’m reminded of Alfred Lord Tennyson’s beautiful verse:

The time draws near the birth of Christ:

The moon is hid; the night is still;

The Christmas bells from hill to hill

Answer each other

in the mist.

Ah! If we could but let the night be still . . . and listen for the Christmas bells. But, perhaps your time, like mine, is so filled that often the midnight hour of Christmas Eve arrives, and you, like I, have barely heard the bells . . .

Let us take time to listen—and remember the reason the bells are ringing.

Grace and peace to all,

Mary Emma