The Fragrance of Christmas - Day 5 - Holiday Haiku Challenge

Welcome to Day 5 of our Holiday Haiku Challenge Today’s guest, Mandy Mianecki, is preparing her heart this advent season by praying through the ancient scents mentioned in the holy Scriptures. The fragrances of frankincense and myrrh are literally wafting through her home as she leads her children deep into God’s Word this Christmas.

Perhaps the fragrances that fill your home today smell more like spiced cider and pork chops or candy canes mingling with evergreen boughs.

Regardless, don't we know at Christmastime that our lives poured out in worship is the most fragrant offering of all?

Dear Friends, today's Holiday Haiku Writing Prompt is

The Fragrance of Christmas

"Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus’ feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume." -John 12:3

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Mandy Mianecki is a wife and mom of four. She is passionate about encouraging others in their healing journeys from brokenness into wholeness, in uncovering their unique kind of God-breathed brilliance, and in living in the freedom won by Christ. A God-sized dreamer, art maker, lover of all things turquoise, and Nutella-eater, Mandy also runs an essential oil business, blogs at mandymianecki.com, and is a contributing writer for God-sized Dreams. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram.

For more information on oils referenced in scripture, see Mandy's Bible Oils page.

Christmas Lights - Day 4 - Holiday Haiku

Welcome to Day 4 of our Holiday Haiku Challenge. Today's guest is Julie Kieras, author of the popular website happystronghome.com. Julie and I "met" a little over a year ago when she ran a series on her blog entitled, "The Poetry of Parenting Boys". As a BoyMom myself, who also happens to love poetry, I knew immediate that I had found a soul sister. We've been scheming up a way to work together on a project ever since!

Julie chose today's Holiday Haiku Challenge writing prompt:

Strands of Christmas Lights

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Light is always needed in the dark

By Julie Kieras

Colorful leaves give way to colorful lights in my part of the country. This year, I spy Peanuts gang instead of peaceful manger scenes as I drive through towns and neighborhoods.

Yet as municipal decor grows increasingly secularized, one standard Christmas decor remains: lights. Lights looping around evergreens, rooftops, and doorways. Telegraph lines of lights sending dotted messages down streets.

Winter's season is darker than the others by nature. And Light is always needed in the dark.

"The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light." Isaiah 9:2

People walk in darkness of the soul these days, just as Israel walked in darkness.

Passage after passage in Scripture reveals the need for the Light of the Gospel to shine forth from our hearts to the world. Jesus said both "I am the light of the world," and that "ye are the light of the world." (John 8:12; Matthew 5:14).

So when Wendy invited me to write a haiku for Christmas - a small dwelling place in a poem - my heart was drawn to speak of the Light that came for us through the darkness.

I hope this haiku shines into your holiday celebrations, and that you are blessed:

This year as you walk through bedazzled streets and shops, each time you see a strand of Christmas lights, dwell on the image of God, commanding the light to shine out of darkness (2 Corinthians 4:6) into the hearts of men.

Lord, may Your Light shine forth from our souls, that those who see it may be drawn out of darkness to You. Amen.

Amen

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Don't forget to use today's post to inspire a holiday Haiku of your own. Share it in the comment thread below or post it to Instagram #holidayhaiku

For more information about this series... start at the beginning.

Christmas Cookies - Day 3 - Holiday Haiku Challenge

Welcome to Day Three of our Holiday Haiku Challenge.  

So far our themes have been very worshipful, from the Incarnation of Christ to Advent Light. However, I would be remiss to not include a few simple and stirring traditions that make our Christmas' so very sentimental. And so today, I challenge you to pen your own haiku entitled:

Christmas Cookies

The holiday treats that I serve here in my home have nearly all been passed down from loved ones - My mother's Cut-Out Cookies to my mother-in-law's miniature pecan pies. However, the ones that smell and taste most like Christmastime to my boys (and my father) are my Grandmother's Graham Cracker Squares and Nanaimo Bars.

Now it's your turn. Tell us a story, evoke an emotion, express to us the essence of Christmas cookies, using five syllables on the top line, given in the middle, and another five on the bottom line. More information about our haiku challenge here. But first... a recipe from Grandma.

(The following recipe was originally my father's Grandmother's from the 1940's. The recipe card I have in my keepsake box was penned by my Grandma and given to my mom when my parents were dating back in 1967. At the bottom of the weathered recipe card is Grandma's delicate scrawl, "George likes them gooey.")

Graham Cracker Squares

Gather:

2 cups graham cracker squares

1 can of sweetened condensed milk

1 bag semisweet chocolate chips

- Mix thoroughly, pat down into parchment lined 8x8 baking pan, and bake at 275 degrees for approximately 30 minutes (or until golden brown.)

- Cut and serve warm with ice cream; or cooled, on a platter alongside your favorite Christmas cookies.

Advent Light - Day 2 - Holiday Haiku Challenge

Welcome to Day Two of our Holiday Haiku Challenge.

Today's guest is writer Michelle DeRusha. Michelle is the author of the incredible collection 50 Women Every Christian Should Know: Learning from Heroines of the Faith and the recently released Spiritual Misfit: A Memoir of Uneasy Faith. She writes regularly (and beautifully) here on her website, and loves connecting with women on Facebook and Twitter.

Michelle offers us today's #holidayhaiku writing prompt:

Advent Light

Advent Light

by Michelle DeRusha

It seems I’m always drawn to Isaiah during Advent – the prophecy of the coming Immanuel and the metaphors of light overcoming darkness help to orient my mind, body and soul toward the spirit of Christmas. I light the Advent candles in my dining room, lower the lights, turn on the Christmas tree, and open my Bible to Isaiah, soaking up the quiet anticipation of a new beginning that will arrive in the form of a sweet infant on Christmas Day.

This year, as we fight to see light amid darkness, as we struggle for hope in the face of senseless suffering around the globe, Isaiah’s words seem more important than ever.

“The people who walk in darkness will see a great light. For those who live in a land of deep darkness, a light will shine.” (Isaiah 9:2)

This Advent season, may we hold tightly onto the Light that penetrates deepest darkness. May we hold tightly onto Jesus. Amen.

If you are inspired to join our holiday haiku challenge, then leave your poetic offering of 17 syllables in the comment thread below or on Instagram, #holidayhaiku. Remember that there are 5 syllables in the first line, 7 in the middle, and another 5 on the third line. Let those few words communicate the essence of your worshipful theme. Metaphors from nature and a surprise at the end is always a nice touch to the traditional Japanese haiku. To join us from the beginning of our challenge, begin here. 

What is a Haiku? And what does it have to do with the Incarnation? - Day 1 - Holiday Haiku Challenge

Welcome to Day 1 of our Holiday Haiku Challenge: What is a haiku?

Today's guest, Bethany Hockenbury, is a sixth grade teacher, a mother of three, and one of the loveliest, most intelligent women I know. Her words are guaranteed to not only educate us on the technical artistry of the haiku, but to launch us into this Christmas season with a quiet sense of awe and wonder.

If you are so inspired, I hope you will join our Holiday Haiku Challenge. Each day my guests and I will offer a new word, phrase, lyric, or scripture reference to prompt your daily offering of 17 syllables. Leave your poem in the comment thread below or on Instagram, #holidayhaiku. If you publish your haiku in a blog post, please feel free to link to our challenge or send me a private message, and I'll be happy to share your words with our readers. Throughout these 25 days I will be featuring many of your words here at wendyspeake.com

And so, without further ado, here is today's first Holiday Haiku Prompt:

Incarnation

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Jesus is the Ultimate Haiku

A guest post by Bethany Hockenbury

Haiku: In middle school English class, we’ve all been taught that haiku is a traditional Japanese form of poetry that utilizes a syllable pattern of 5-7-5, relies on a strong image to make a point, and incorporates a surprise concept at the end.  As a 6th grade teacher, this is what I teach my students as well.  And then I watch them scrunch up their faces and count on their fingers as they desperately try to fit their ideas into the measured rhythm of syllables.  

“Mrs Hockenbury, what’s a syllable again?”

“What if I have lots more to say than five syllables?”   “Is ‘hot chocolate’ two syllables or three?” “Why do we have to do this? Haiku is dumb.”  

Mostly, their efforts are awful.  The syllables are fractured; the concepts are bland.  They drop their pencils on the floor and pinch their neighbors and maybe get a few words scribbled onto the page.  

They’re right.  This is dumb.  Something in our spirits resists being crammed into smaller spaces, resists being jammed into confines that we never planned.  

Imagine the Savior—the vast, omniscient Creator of the world—scrunched into the smallest of bodies, in the lowliest of perimeters.  A divine being, folded tightly into the confines of humanity.  The Word, the Logos, crammed into measured syllabic patterns.  

And then it takes my breath away………  The beauty of being condensed, made smaller, in order to reveal in simplicity the concepts that cannot be understood in fullness.  I cannot relate to His vastness, so He made himself small.  I cannot understand His depth, so He made himself simple.  I cannot fathom His divinity, so He made himself human.   The very Incarnation is a haiku--  just a few syllables, a strong, relatable image, and a surprise at the end.  

Merry Christmas,

Bethany Hockenbury

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A very special welcome to my fellow bloggers who have already taken up the challenge and made it their own. Visit the always encouraging and ever-joyful Mary Hill at MaryanderingCreatively.com, and the beautiful wordsmith, Megan Willome at MeganWillome.com