the night before christmas.

Empty manger, perfect stranger

About to be born

Into darkness, sadness, desperate madness

Creation so torn

We were so lost on earth

No peace, no worth, no way to escape

In fear, no faith, no hope, no grace, and no light

But that was the night before Christmas

And the world didn't know redemption was sweet and so strong

And the world didn't know salvation was writing a song

The night before Christmas

~ Brandon Heath, The Night Before Christmas

"Though the Witch knew the Deep Magic, there is a magic deeper still which she did not know. Her knowledge goes back only to the dawn of Time. But if she could have looked a little further back, into the stillness and the darkness before Time dawned, she would have read there a different incantation. She would have known that when a willing victim who had committed no treachery was killed in a traitor's stead, the Table would crack and Death itself would start working backwards."

~ C.S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe