{"id":2283,"date":"2011-12-24T01:48:27","date_gmt":"2011-12-24T06:48:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/?p=2283"},"modified":"2015-03-13T23:11:15","modified_gmt":"2015-03-14T03:11:15","slug":"christmas-poem-of-the-day-the-bonding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2011\/12\/24\/christmas-poem-of-the-day-the-bonding\/","title":{"rendered":"Christmas Poem of the Day&#8212; The Bonding"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/55\/2011\/11\/ChristOurLight.jpg\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/55\/2011\/11\/ChristOurLight-198x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"198\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-2284\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>THE BONDING<\/p>\n<p>A cold and listless season,<br>\nAnd full of cheerless cheer,<br>\nWhen hopes are raised and dashed again<br>\nAnd joy dissolves in tears.<\/p>\n<p>The search for endless family<br>\nThe search for one true Friend<br>\nLeaves questers tired, disconsolate<br>\nWith questions without end.<\/p>\n<p>Best find some potent pleasure quick<br>\nSome superficial thrill<br>\nThan search for everlasting love<br>\nWhen none can fill that bill.<\/p>\n<p>So hide yourselves in shopping<br>\nAnd eating \u2018til you burst,<br>\nUse endless entertainment<br>\nAs shelter from the worst.<\/p>\n<p>And hope at least for truce on earth,<br>\nThough warlords rattle swords<br>\nAs if to kill could solve our ills<br>\nWe seize our \u2018just\u2019 rewards.<\/p>\n<p>Mistake some rest for lasting peace<br>\nAnd calm for \u2018all is well\u2019<br>\nAnd absence of activity<br>\nAs year end\u2019s victory bell.<\/p>\n<p>But what if Advent is no quest<br>\nDespite the wise men\u2019s star<br>\nWhat if Advent isn\u2019t reached<br>\nBy driving from afar?<\/p>\n<p>What if Good News comes to us<br>\nFrom well beyond our reach?<br>\nWhat if love and peace on earth<br>\nAre more than things we preach?<\/p>\n<p>What if a restless peace<br>\nIs what He did intend<br>\nUntil we open up our lives<br>\nAnd let the stranger in?<\/p>\n<p>What if a peaceless rest<br>\nIs not the Christmas hope<br>\nWhat if nothing we could do<br>\nHelps us truly cope?<\/p>\n<p>What if there is a bonding<br>\nWith one who rules above<br>\nWho came to us in beggar\u2019s rags<br>\nAnd brought the gift of love?<\/p>\n<p>The God shaped hole in every heart<br>\nIs healed by just one source<br>\nWhen Jesus comes to claim his own<br>\nWho are without recourse.<\/p>\n<p>So give up endless seeking<br>\nSurrender is required<br>\nThe one who is the Lord of all<br>\nCannot be bought or hired,<\/p>\n<p>He\u2019s not conjured into life<br>\nBy pomp and circumstance<br>\nBy Yuletide carols boldly sung<br>\nBy fun or drunken trance.<\/p>\n<p>He comes unbidden, unawares<br>\nFills crevices of souls<br>\nHe comes on his own timely terms<br>\nAnd makes the sinner whole.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018We shall be restless\u2019 said the saint<br>\n\u2018Until we rest in thee\u2019<br>\nAnd find that we have been reborn,<br>\nOur own nativity.<\/p>\n<p>How silently, how silently<br>\nThe precious truth is given<br>\nAnd God imparts to human hearts<br>\nThe blessings of his heaven.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>THE BONDING A cold and listless season, And full of cheerless cheer, When hopes are raised and dashed again And joy dissolves in tears. The search for endless family The search for one true Friend Leaves questers tired, disconsolate With questions without end. Best find some potent pleasure quick Some superficial thrill Than search for [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":91,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2283","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Christmas Poem of the Day--- The Bonding<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"THE BONDING A cold and listless season, And full of cheerless cheer, When hopes are raised and dashed again And joy dissolves in tears. The search for\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Christmas Poem of the Day--- The Bonding\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"THE BONDING A cold and listless season, And full of cheerless cheer, When hopes are raised and dashed again And joy dissolves in tears. The search for\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2011\/12\/24\/christmas-poem-of-the-day-the-bonding\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Bible and Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-12-24T06:48:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-03-14T03:11:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/files\/2011\/11\/ChristOurLight-198x300.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ben Witherington\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Ben Witherington\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2011\/12\/24\/christmas-poem-of-the-day-the-bonding\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2011\/12\/24\/christmas-poem-of-the-day-the-bonding\/\",\"name\":\"Christmas Poem of the Day--- The Bonding\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-12-24T06:48:27+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-03-14T03:11:15+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/67da39aff728f9d015878d198839df4b\"},\"description\":\"THE BONDING A cold and listless season, And full of cheerless cheer, When hopes are raised and dashed again And joy dissolves in tears. The search for\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2011\/12\/24\/christmas-poem-of-the-day-the-bonding\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2011\/12\/24\/christmas-poem-of-the-day-the-bonding\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2011\/12\/24\/christmas-poem-of-the-day-the-bonding\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Christmas Poem of the Day&#8212; The Bonding\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/\",\"name\":\"The Bible and Culture\",\"description\":\"A One-Stop Shop for All Things Biblical and Christian\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/67da39aff728f9d015878d198839df4b\",\"name\":\"Ben Witherington\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8cf1998568f0b6ccbd63f56b44d47303?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8cf1998568f0b6ccbd63f56b44d47303?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Ben Witherington\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/author\/benw333\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Christmas Poem of the Day--- The Bonding","description":"THE BONDING A cold and listless season, And full of cheerless cheer, When hopes are raised and dashed again And joy dissolves in tears. The search for","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"follow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Christmas Poem of the Day--- The Bonding","og_description":"THE BONDING A cold and listless season, And full of cheerless cheer, When hopes are raised and dashed again And joy dissolves in tears. The search for","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2011\/12\/24\/christmas-poem-of-the-day-the-bonding\/","og_site_name":"The Bible and Culture","article_published_time":"2011-12-24T06:48:27+00:00","article_modified_time":"2015-03-14T03:11:15+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/files\/2011\/11\/ChristOurLight-198x300.jpg"}],"author":"Ben Witherington","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Ben Witherington","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2011\/12\/24\/christmas-poem-of-the-day-the-bonding\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2011\/12\/24\/christmas-poem-of-the-day-the-bonding\/","name":"Christmas Poem of the Day--- The Bonding","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/#website"},"datePublished":"2011-12-24T06:48:27+00:00","dateModified":"2015-03-14T03:11:15+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/67da39aff728f9d015878d198839df4b"},"description":"THE BONDING A cold and listless season, And full of cheerless cheer, When hopes are raised and dashed again And joy dissolves in tears. The search for","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2011\/12\/24\/christmas-poem-of-the-day-the-bonding\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2011\/12\/24\/christmas-poem-of-the-day-the-bonding\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2011\/12\/24\/christmas-poem-of-the-day-the-bonding\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Christmas Poem of the Day&#8212; The Bonding"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/","name":"The Bible and Culture","description":"A One-Stop Shop for All Things Biblical and Christian","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/67da39aff728f9d015878d198839df4b","name":"Ben Witherington","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8cf1998568f0b6ccbd63f56b44d47303?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8cf1998568f0b6ccbd63f56b44d47303?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"Ben Witherington"},"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/author\/benw333\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2283","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/91"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2283"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2283\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}