A Norman Rockwell Christmas
Opening video Illustration: The Nativity (clip) – Remembering who the reason for the season is- Jesus.
Opening hands on Illustration: Show some of his pictures from his books and pass the books around!
Thesis: Norman Rockwell the beloved and talented artist always set out in his paintings to depict life in America and the importance of American Values. In our fast paced society today we need to re-discover these same values this year during the Christmas season.
Introduction:
Norman’s brief Biography:
• Americans were extremely receptive to Rockwell’s "Saturday Evening Post" covers. In fact, Rockwell went on to create 321 covers for the Post, each portraying typical American life and values.
• In 1916, the 22-year-old Rockwell painted his first cover for The Saturday Evening Post, the magazine considered by Rockwell to be the "greatest show window in America."
• The 1930s and 1940s are generally considered to be the most fruitful decades of Rockwell’s career. In 1930 he married Mary Barstow, a schoolteacher, and the couple had three sons, Jarvis, Thomas, and Peter. The family moved to Arlington, Vermont, in 1939, and Rockwell’s work began to reflect small-town American life.
• In 1943, inspired by President Franklin Roosevelt’s address to Congress, Rockwell painted the Four Freedoms paintings. They were reproduced in four consecutive issues of The Saturday Evening Post with essays by contemporary writers. Rockwell’s interpretations of Freedom of Speech, Freedom to Worship, Freedom from Want, and Freedom from Fear proved to be enormously popular. The works toured the United States in an exhibition that was jointly sponsored by the Post and the U.S. Treasury Department and, through the sale of war bonds, raised more than $130 million for the war effort.
• See the 4 paintings done by Rockwell
• In 1963, after 47 years at "The Saturday Evening Post," Rockwell parted ways with the magazine. He went to work for "Look" magazine almost immediately. There he was able to express his deepest concerns and interests, such as civil rights and the war on poverty.
• July 1976 brought Rockwell’s last published work, the cover of “American Artist.” He painted himself draping a “Happy Birthday” banner on the Liberty Bell in observance of the Fourth of July and the 200th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.
• In 1977 President Gerald R. Ford presented Rockwell with the country’s highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. The award was given for Rockwell’s “vivid and affectionate portraits of our country.”
• On November 8, 1978 Norman Rockwell died in his Stockbridge home at the age of 84, leaving an unfinished painting on his easel. His now nostalgic paintings and illustrations continue to live on in American history, depicting decades of pleasantry and pain. A second edition of his autobiography was published in 1988, with new material from Tom Rockwell, covering the final 20 years of his father’s life. Norman Rockwell’s ability to relate to the values and events of an evolving society made him a hero, a visionary and a friend, not only to Americans but also to individuals all over the globe. In his own words, "Without thinking too much about it in specific terms, I was showing the America I knew and observed to others who might not have noticed."
Quotes:
Quotes by Norman Rockwell
"Without thinking too much about it in specific terms, I was showing the America I knew and observed to others who might not have noticed. My fundamental purpose is to interpret the typical American. I am a story teller."
“I unconsciously decided that, even if it wasn’t an ideal world, it should be and so painted only the ideal aspects of it—pictures in which there are no drunken slatterns or self-centered mothers … only foxy grandpas who played baseball with the kids and boys who fished from logs and got up circuses in the backyard.”
“I cannot convince myself that a painting is good unless it is popular. If the public dislikes one of my Post covers, I can’t help disliking it myself.”
"Commonplaces never become tiresome. It is we who become tired when we cease to be curious and appreciative."
"Every single object shown in a picture should contribute directly to the central theme."
-- From book: Rockwell on Rockwell: How I make a picture, by Norman Rockwell, Watson-Guptill Publications, New York, 1979
“If a picture wasn’t going very well, I’d put a puppy in it.”
"The view of life I communicate in my pictures," Rockwell wrote, "excludes the sordid and ugly. I paint life as I would like it to be."
"If there was sadness in this creative world of mine, it was a pleasant sadness. If there were problems, they were humorous problems."
Quotes about Norman Rockwell
"Even the most brittle cynics melt in the presence of all that wholesomeness. They drop the Armani shield, and they rediscover that this is part of our culture."
-- Robert A. M. Stern the architect of the Rockwell Museum.
"Rockwell’s art mirrors our world - or at least an ideal, slightly lost version of that world . . . . Mom and apple pie are very good institutions, and so was Rockwell’s America - despite the presumed shortcomings of its seeming simplifications. Rockwell was really a very fine artist. He captured in ways no one else has how America was, and how a large part of it wants to be."
-- Robert A. M. Stern, the New York-based international architect.
“People like to think that Rockwell painted Middle America," says Tom Sgouros, an artist, illustrator, and professor at the Rhode Island School of Design. "The truth is, Norman Rockwell invented Middle America."
"Rockwell taught me how to remember. I clung to the ordinary eccentricity, the clothes, the good-heartedness, the names of things, the comic incongruities, and the oddities of arrangement and light"
-- Dave Hickey, in a provocative 1995 Art Issues study.
Harvest House Publishers, Simple Prayers of Hope, Norman Rockwell and text by Margaret Feinberg on their back cover of the book says this:
“Norman Rockwell’s inspiring scenes of small-town life and the connection between friends and strangers are accompanied by uplifting, true stories that remind us of the power of words whispered to heaven.”
Show the books and pass it around to the church – His theme “A day in the life of the ideal American.”
• His books reveal the heart of America in pictures. It’s important for you to know that all his pictures involved real people and real stories behind the portraits of the ideal America. He believed his work had divine purpose and eternal value to the American people. So he did it with his whole heart!
Scripture Text:
• 1Corinthians 10:31: “31So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.”
• Colossians 3:23: “23Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, 24since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.”
T.S. – Let’s look at the values that he observed in America and ask ourselves if they are prevalent in our lives this Christmas Season.
I. The value of the Church and its leader to America
a. His pictures reveal that in America people valued the church and what she represented to the American way of life.
i. Show picture of father and son in church: His classic picture of the father showing the son how to follow along in the praise and worship service of the church portrays the importance of worshipping God and of the father’s role of teaching his children faith in the Lord and service to the Kingdom of God.
1. The Deut 6 principle is being stressed in this glimpse into the past of America in the 30’s:
a. Deut 6:1-8: 1These are the commands, decrees and laws the LORD your God directed me to teach you to observe in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess, 2so that you, your children and their children after them may fear the LORD your God as long as you live by keeping all his decrees and commands that I give you, and so that you may enjoy long life. 3Hear, O Israel, and be careful to obey so that it may go well with you and that you may increase greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the LORD, the God of your fathers, promised you.4Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.5Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. 7Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.
i. The Bible tells us that it is our responsibility as parents to instill into our children the value of the church.
ii. Christmas season is a great time to explain to our children, and grand children why we celebrate Christmas.
iii. Norman painted another picture called “The First Christmas” of a grandpa telling his grandchildren all about the first Christmas and the message of Jesus.
1. See the picture
2. It portrays the joy in the grandfather’s facial expression while he is communicating to his grandchildren the value and the importance of this first Christmas.
ii. Show picture of family going to church: His classic picture of the family going to church together is another portrait of how important worship is and was to America.
1. Norman always said that he painted what he saw and observed in America!
2. Here is a whole family walking to church carrying their Bibles eagerly to learn and to grow in their faith.
a. It says church is an important part of America and we need to honor it.
b. Hebrews 10:25 says, “Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another-and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”
i. The truth is we all need to value the church because the church is God’s design and He is the head of it.
ii. The reality is there is no perfect church and God knew that but He still wants us involved in a local church to make a difference for eternity.
b. Norman painted another famous picture which revealed the value of being able to go and worship God freely in America. The two Big Wars during Norman’s lifetime helped him to be reminded of how blessed we were to worship God freely.
i. He painted this picture along with three others after hearing the president lay out the 4 Freedoms – Norman went to work for His country. When he painted the 4 Freedoms which were laid out in President Roosevelt’s State of The Union Address they ended up touching the heart of America.
ii. See the picture of the 4 Freedoms.
1. Freedom of Speech
2. Freedom from Fear
3. Freedom from Want
4. Freedom of Worship
c. I sometimes wonder as I look around at the new America today if she still places a value on the church and the message she proclaims to this nation today.
i. Recently I picked up Kimball’s new book called, “They Like Jesus But Not The Church.”
1. He makes this observation about our young America today:
a. “Our world has changed whether we like it or not!”
b. “We are living in an increasingly ‘post-Christian’ culture. America once was more of a ‘Christian nation’ whose influences and values were aligned with Judeo-Christian values and ethics. Even most atheists had a good sense of the story line of the Bible and its main characters, and usually respected the Bible and Christians pastors. Movies and media generally taught values and ethics that aligned for the most part with the Bible. However, the world around has drastically changed over the past thirty years or so” (page 15).
c. This new world we live in does not value the church or its representatives. It’s value system is changing and shifting and we must call upon God to help reverse the current trends in our culture.
d. George Barna tells us that the emerging generation has no basic understanding of the Bible or even many of the stories of the Bible because their parents failed to teach them about the Lord and His Word. Their parents failed to take their kids to church and to role-model for their kids the value of church.
i. We parents, grandparents, and relatives of today need to go back to stressing and modeling the value of the church. We need to show through example and commitment that the church does have eternal value and does have a divine mission on this earth.
ii. Christmas season is wonderful time to be able to share about the importance of Jesus’ birth and how His church fits into the scheme of life on this planet and in our future eternal life.
1. John 3:16-21:16“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. 19This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. 21But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.”
a. This verse explains to us the struggle that is going on at Christmas and even the many attacks on the removal of Christ out of Christmas and out of public life today.
b. We are in a spiritual battle but as Christians we must do our part of the Great Commission and communicate the “Good News” to those who don’t know it. We especially need to do this with our family members.
c. So I challenge you to pray and ask God for wisdom on how you can communicate the “Good News” to those around you.
T.S. – Norman Rockwell looked at American Society and painted what he saw and he observed that the church was an American value and then he also observed the value of prayer to Americans – the truth is they go hand in hand.
II. The value of prayer
a. Norman Rockwell grasped the power of prayer in his landmark picture of the grandma and her grandson saying “Grace” in a café filled with onlookers.
i. See picture
1. The picture shows the importance of prayer and the witness it is to others in the picture. Notice the expressions of the onlookers.
a. They are curious, they are enlightened, they are thinking about their own spiritual condition, they are respectful.
i. The book on Hope has a better picture because you see more of the expressions on the onlookers in that picture then the one in my power point.
ii. Rockwell saw prayer as an American value (an important American value- in the one freedom of worship painting he is the man behind the women who is also worshipping God and praying). Several of his famous paintings told the story of prayer in American life.
1. Show prayer picture of Grandparents at home saying “Grace” before the meal.
2. Note: Norman was stressing the Deut. 6 principle here!
b. Here are some thoughts on prayer from leading Americans and others. These quotes are taken from Norman’s Rockwell’s book “Hope” being passed around today:
i. EM Bounds stated, “Prayer is the contact of a living soul with God. In prayer, God stoops to kiss a man, to bless a man, and to aid in everything that God can devise or man can need.
ii. Richard Cecil stated, “Prayer is faith passing into action.”
iii. D.L. Moody stated, “Every great movement of God can be traced to a kneeling figure.”
iv. George Buttrick stated, “Prayer is friendship with God.”
v. George Mueller stated, “It is not enough for the believer to begin to pray, not to pray correctly; nor is it enough to continue for a time to pray. We must patiently believing continue in prayer until we obtain an answer.”
vi. William Booth stated, “Work as if everything depended upon work and pray as if everything depended upon prayer.”
vii. James Houston said, “Prayer is wider than the world, deeper than the heart, and older than the origin of humanity, because prayer originates from the very character of God.”
c. To Rockwell this was an American value and a essential one that unlocked the power of Heaven to come down and to help us in life’s daily issues.
i. But once again as I look around this Christmas season is prayer a value in America today?
1. Do you value prayer?
ii. I believe today especially in the midst of Christmas season that we must show to those around us the value of prayer. We need to model to those around us the value of praying to Jesus, to giving thanks to the one who was born to die so that we could have access to the Heavenly or Father.
d. Show the picture of the little boy praying before bed.
i. Maybe we need to recapture that child like faith that Jesus talked about in the Gospels.
T.S. – Norman saw prayer as a value in American society and he showed in his paintings its importance in everyday life. His prayer pictures also highlighted another one American value which was the family unit-which included grand-parents!
III. The value of family
a. Norman Rockwell did a lot of pictures portraying the value of the family.
i. He was a strong family man and this brought him his greatest joy in life.
1. He had three sons of his own.
2. Show all the pictures of families
ii. Psalm 68:6 says, “God sets the lonely in families…”
b. God designed the family unit when he created Adam and Eve and then allowed them to have children.
i. The family is born out of a love relationship between a man and a woman.
1. This relationship is what gives birth to a healthy happy family and Norman loved to paint pictures about it.
c. Focus on the family is dedicated to the support of the family unit and on their website I found an article by Carrol Heffernan which addresses the importance of the family unit in the context of marriage:
i. Carrol states, “Everyone has bad days, yells at his or her spouse, or is downright selfish. Despite these imperfections, God created the husband and wife to steer each other in His direction. Thomas offers an example: "When my wife forgives me . . . and accepts me, I learn to receive God’s forgiveness and acceptance as well. In that moment, she is modeling God to me, revealing God’s mercy to me, and helping me to see with my own eyes a very real spiritual reality."While it’s easy to see why God designed another-centered union for a me-centered world, living that way is a challenge. So when bills pile up, communication breaks down and you’re just plain irritated with your husband or wife, Thomas offers these reminders to help ease the tension”:
1. God created marriage as a loyal partnership between one man and one woman.
2. Marriage is the firmest foundation for building a family.
3. God designed sexual expression to help married couples build intimacy.
4. Marriage mirrors God’s covenant relationship with His people.
We see this last parallel throughout the Bible. For instance, Jesus refers to Himself as the "bridegroom" and to the kingdom of heaven as a "wedding banquet."These points demonstrate that God’s purposes for marriage extend far beyond personal happiness. Thomas is quick to clarify that God isn’t against happiness per se, but that marriage promotes even higher values. "God did not create marriage just to give us a pleasant means of repopulating the world and providing a steady societal institution to raise children. He planted marriage among humans as yet another signpost pointing to His own eternal, spiritual existence."
d. As I did my research on the family I came across another Article titled, “Do We Value Our Family Time?” (http://guidance.gospelcom.net/family.htm):
i. Family time is something we all say we value, but few of us actually experience. Surveys suggest that most families rate time together as their number one priority. Those same surveys show that fathers spend only a few minutes a day with their children. In his book If I Were Starting My Family Again, John Drescher wrote about a study of 300 seventh and eighth-grade boys who kept detailed records of how much time their fathers spent with them over a two-week period. Most saw their father only at the dinner table. A number didn’t see their fathers for days at a time. The average time father and son were alone together was seven and one-half minutes a week. There are several excuses that we use to justify our lack of time together as families: We excuse ourselves by saying, "We don’t spend much time together, but our time is quality time." This makes me wonder what one minute of "quality time" per day might include. Perhaps you will agree with me that quality time cannot exist apart from quantities of time. Another argument we use is: "My kids are young. If I’m not around that much for the first few years, it won’t matter." This attitude fails to take into account the fact that many opportunities present themselves only once and only for a moment. A child is only two for one year. Toddlers do not remain toddlers for long. We must seize every opportunity to be together because none of us knows which moments are going to be locked forever into a child’s memory. And none of us knows which experiences will mark turning points in a child’s life. A third excuse is: "I’ll make it up to them later. There’s plenty of time. I’ll build my career now so that when they’re older we’ll have plenty of money to spend on activities we all enjoy." This argument is, in a word, foolishness. Who really believes that we’ll have more time in a few years than we have now? Busy lifestyles don’t change when we reach a certain age; they just become more deeply ingrained. We all have twenty-four hours in a day and what we do with those hours speaks volumes about what is important to us. If we have no time for our children while they are young, they very likely will have no time for us when we are old. We ought to make the most of each opportunity (Ephesians 5:16). Be a part of your children’s lives; make family time a priority. Schedule plenty of time together so quality experiences can happen. Your family is a gift to you from God. Don’t say, "I’ll make it up to you later." Spend time with your loved ones today.
e. Video Clip – From Family Driven Faith Dr. Voddie Baucham.
i. He talks about the serious condition of the family unit today.
f. Christmas is a great time to re-center in on the value of family so take the time this year to re-discover you family treasure chest.
T.S. - Norman Rockwell painted the value of the family unit in America and many need to look at his paintings and re-discover this treasure. Normans also observed another American value which he believed in and that was “The Golden Rule.”
IV. The value of the Golden Rule
a. Show his famous Golden rule picture.
b. Jesus gave us the golden rule and it is to be an eternal value that guides our lives – especially at this Christmas Season, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you!” This is the Golden Rule!
i. Matthew 7:12-14: 12So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets. 13“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.
1. Only a few in life discover the importance of the Golden Rule – many live by twisting this rule to say, “Do it to another before they do it to you!”
ii. Luke 6:31: “Do to others as you would have them do to you.”
1. In other words treat others like you would like to be treated and this will please God and make a difference for eternity.
c. Holman Bible Dictionary states this about the Golden Rule
i. New Testament: Brotherly love in the ancient Christian literature means to treat others as if they were a part of one’s family. This kind of love means “to like” another person and to want what is best for that individual. The basic word used for the brotherly type of love, phileo, sometimes means “to kiss,” which was to show close friendship (Mark 14:44). This kind of love is never used for the love of God nor for erotic love. Jesus constantly taught His followers the principle of “brotherly love,” even though the New Testament never records Him using this very word. He declared that the second great commandment is, “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself” (Mark 12:31), and in the parable of the Good Samaritan He explained who that neighbor is (Luke 10:25-37). He also encouraged forgiveness of a brother (Matt. 18:23-35) and offered the Golden Rule as a guide in relating to one’s brother (Matt. 7:12; Luke 6:31).Paul spoke of “brotherly love” in the context of the community of believers, the church. Twice he used the term philadelphia: first in 1 Thessalonians 4:9, then in Romans 12:10. In both cases he encouraged Christians to live peaceably with one another in the church. He underlined the idea of love for the brethren in Galatians 5:14, “For all the law is fulfilled in one word,... Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” Also in Romans 13:8-10, he declared, “Owe no man anything, but to love one another,” and in 1 Corinthians 8:13, on causing a weaker brother to stumble, he wrote, “If meat make my brother to offend, I will eat no flesh....”In the Johannine writings, brotherly love is a dominant theme. Jesus gave a new commandment “that ye love one another” (John 13:34). The idea is repeated in John 17:26, “that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them.” A series of emphatic statements on brotherly love in 1 and 2 John are designed to show that this is truly the central command of Jesus (1 John 2:9; 3:10, 18, 23; 4:8, 20; 2 John 6).In the Epistles the specific word, philadelphia (brotherly love) appears in Hebrews and in 1 and 2 Peter. Hebrews 13:1-2 connects it with “hospitality to strangers,” 1 Peter 1:22 with being pure...
d. Rockwell was very proud of this painting and he hoped that it would inspire people in this world to live out the “Golden Rule” in their everyday lives.
i. I sat and pondered this thought “What if America today decided to live by this Rule – could you imagine the positive effect it would have on America?
ii. Maybe this Christmas we need to adopt this rule and live by this rule so we can get it moving across our country again.
T.S. - The Golden rule was once and American value and it needs to be re-discovered. The other value he communicated in his paintings a lot was the value of friendship.
V. The value of friendship
a. Show his friendship pictures
i. Norman Rockwell was a very social person and loved to spend time with his friends. It is said that every day he and about 6 of his close friends would take a 45 minute bike ride together to catch up on their days.
1. He knew the value of friendship and once again I wonder if we are losing this value today?
b. Holman Bible Dictionary states this about friendship:
i. FRIEND, FRIENDSHIP A close trusting relationship between two people. Nowhere does the Bible present a concise definition of “friend” or “friendship.” Instead, both the Old and New Testaments present friendship in its different facets.
1. Two Hebrew root words, r’h and ahv, are used to describe friendship. R’h denotes an associate or companion, while ahv connotes the object of one’s affection or devotion—a friend. Consequently, friendship may be simple association (Gen. 38:12; 2 Sam. 15:37) or loving companionship, the most recognizable example being that between David and Saul’s son, Jonathan (1 Sam. 18:1, 3; 20:17; 2 Sam. 1:26).
2. In the New Testament, the predominant word for friend is philos. A derivative, philia, is often used for friendship. Jesus is described as the “friend of sinners” (Matt. 11:19). He called His disciples “friends” (Luke 12:4; John 15:13-15). The New Testament highlights the connection between friends and joy (Luke 15:6, 9, 29), as well as warning of the possibility of friends proving false (Luke 21:16). Echoing the Old Testament, James pointed to Abraham, the friend of God, as one whose example of active faith is to be followed (Jas. 2:23). James also warned against friendship with the world (Jas. 4:4). Only in 3 John 14 is “friend” a self-designation for Christians. As a means of describing the relations between church members, friendship was overshadowed by the model of family relations, brotherhood and sisterhood (1 Tim. 5:1-3; 1 Pet. 1:22; 2:17).
ii. Quotes on friendship:
1. Anne Lindbergh, “If one is estranged from oneself, then one is estranged from others too. If one is out of touch with oneself, then one cannot touch others.”
2. C.S. Lewis, “Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another: "What! You, too? Thought I was the only one."
3. Henri Nouwen, “When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives means the most us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving much advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a gentle and tender hand. The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing, not curing, not healing and face with us the reality of our powerlessness, that is a friend who cares.”
c. How many people here remember the classic Christmas movie, “It’s A Wonderful Life?” Do you remember the theme of the movie?
i. Collins notes this about the movie:
1. The story is well known. A man, George who has sacrificed all of his dreams for his family and friends, suddenly loses everything. When his world comes apart during the holidays, he senses that his life has been wasted. Caught in a deep depression, George feels he has done nothing to change the world and decides to take his own life. But a bumbling angel named Clarence comes to his rescue. Clarence shows George the profound impact he’s had on hundreds of people in his town and around the world. This movie ends with many of the people whom George has touched giving him the money to save his business. This proves to George that his life has been worthwhile, and its earns Clarence his wings” (Stories Behind The Great Traditions of Christmas” page 135).
ii. There is a quote in the movie which states, “Remember, no man is a failure who has friends.”
Conclusion:
• When you study his art you discover that he painted the values of America from 1916 to 1978.
• His message said the following: “These are the values that I see in America!”
• Rockwell showed the values of America and he painted them for the world to see and to ponder:
• The Church
• Prayer
• Family
• The Golden Rule
• Friendship
• All these messages were communicated through his art and they should communicate to us what we need to focus on this Christmas season.
• If you really want a Merry Christmas – Place an eternal value on your Church and it’s leader Jesus Christ, on prayer, on your family, on living the Golden Rule and on friendship. If we all in America decide to focus on these eternal values we truly will have a Merry Christmas this season and a Happy New Year.
