<\/em>Bethlehem, of course is a landlocked place, and the \u201cships\u201d referred to would originally have been the camels, those \u201cships of the desert\u201d, a common medieval metaphor, for those exotic animals ridden by the wise men on their way seeking the birth of the Messiah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cA cold coming we had of it, It is vintage Goudge, containing many of the story lines and characters she loved. An orphan child brought up by elderly aunts, a child who is sensitive, fey almost and teaches her elders how to be \u201cchildlike\u201d again, obtaining from her gifts of enjoyment in the wider world outside their social concerns. There are folk stories evoking an older wisdom and a cast of eccentric characters surrounding the innocence of the little girl. There is the beauty of the natural world under lined with the spiritual which Elizabeth does so deftly; \u201cThe stars shone so brightly that they made a weight of glory in the sky.\u201d <\/em>Memories perhaps of her view from her own bedroom window.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The real heart of the book is that she takes three disreputable old men, men outside of the polite mannered, constricted life of the era and makes them into believable Magi. The sad and haunted French refugee, the irascible \u201cRag and Bones\u201d and the mysterious seafaring man who turns out to be the most life enhancing figure of them all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thank you Elizabeth for extending the hand of friendship and restoring to me a sense of hope and faith that starting from the new birth of Christmas reinvigorates my knowledge that the world is still a wonderous place. Where acts kindness and the unexpected turn lives from the survival to the magical.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Faith and Hope, two qualities that Elizabeth cherished, along with her belief in the common goodness of humankind are treasures that I have found increasingly hard to hang onto in these dystopian days. \u201c May you live in interesting times\u201d is often cited as a Chinese curse, ironic in its meaning of trouble. Something that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1398,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[111,14,15,126,128],"tags":[133,90],"class_list":["post-1395","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","category-book-review","category-chat","category-christmas","category-faith","tag-christmas","tag-i-saw-three-ships"],"yoast_head":"\n
Just the worst time of the year
For a journey, and such a long journey:
the ways deep and the weather sharp
The very dead of winter\u201d
<\/em>T. S. Eliot<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.elizabethgoudge.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/IMG_20251214_124905__01-582x1024.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"