The Power of Home – Merry Christmas

Blessings upon your home and everyone in it this Christmas!! The older my children get (not I!), the better I understand the power of Home. It’s where drama, doldrums, heartbreak, rebirth, rancor, harmony, fear and fearlessness dwell. At its best, it is a safe haven overflowing with love and friendship — a sturdy shelter. And while it may exist as a particular place and a particular structure, it is of course much more.  Homesickness reveals a longing that runs deep. The final stanza of a G.K. Chesterton Christmas poem about the Nativity puts it like only the poet can:

To an open house in the evening
Home shall all men come,
To an older place than Eden
And a taller town than Rome.
To the end of the way of the wandering star,
To the things that cannot be and that are,
To the place where God was homeless
And all men are at home.

The love and peace of that ramshackle stable, the perfect home, is the heart’s desire. For you and me, fighting for pro-life candidates and laws, we fight for everyone’s perfect home. How? As for Christ Himself, the first home any child has is in the “housing” of his mother. That peaceful, sturdy shelter before birth is possibly the closest to the Nativity stable (the “open house in the evening”) we will have in our whole lives down here on Earth.

Every child deserves that peaceful home. Every mother of every child deserves the same. This is the greatest of battles we fight together. In 2014, I expect it will reach a peak. May this season bring the peace of the Nativity to your home. May it renew and enliven our resolve as we plan for victories for Life together.

Best wishes,

Marjorie Dannenfelser
President, Susan B. Anthony List