Julien's Journal December 2016 (Volume 41, Number 12) | Page 32

FEATURES

Shepherd’s
Song
by Catherine Opper
I was there,
what I heard, what I saw may seem absurd
to you. Perhaps to me.
Against the winter sky, against the night
I saw sound. I heard light, as lightning
speaks to thunder.
There were words, above the bleating
herds,
words, no language that I knew but shining
sounds that grew
from legends of the past
and the brilliance of this blast
lighted all… lighted all… lighted all.
Sudden as came the light, the night
returned,
but in me burned the clearness of that light;
in me thrummed the thunder
and the wonder –
in me the wild and terrible wonder
Of those words v

30  ❖  Julien’s Journal 

Christmas
Presence

C

by Roger Brockshus

hildren in America are taught to believe in Santa Claus, elves,
the Easter bunny, witches, goblins, the tooth fairy, and Cupid’s
arrows. These things are part of a culture that not only form young
minds, but often confuses them.
I was born in 1949 and spent my youth on a farm near Ocheyedan,
IA. My parents sent my five siblings and me to a parochial school where we had
a daily dose of Christian education. In addition, we had fun celebrating the birth
of baby Jesus at Christmas, the rising of our Savior at Easter, and the celebration
of the Reformation at Halloween.
Like other kids, my favorite holiday was Christmas. Santa wasn’t part of our
tradition, but we knew that we would all have presents under our Christmas tree.
Sometimes there would be presents that would appear when we least expected
it. There would be presents from our parents and presents from each other. There
would also be more presents when we went to our grandparents’ house. It was a
joyful time of the year!
One year, a few days before Christmas, I looked under our Christmas tree. There
didn’t seem to be very many presents there. I wondered if things had been a little
rough on our farm this year. As children, we weren’t often told about the financial
side of farming. Not wanting to upset anyone during this special season, I kept
these thoughts to myself.
The next day, I was fixing a rope on our sled in the garage. My brother, Glen,
came in to see what I was doing.
“It’s cold in here,” he said. “Let’s build a fire.”
When Glen opened the door to the wood stove, he yelled, “Look at this!”
The wood stove was completely full of Christmas presents! We took them all
out, and spent the next half hour shaking, pinching, and examining each present
until we were sure we knew what was in each one. We then put them back in the