Elves and Pied Pipers

Each year at Christmastime here in America, thousands of parents participate in the Elf on the Shelf Tradition with their children.

In recent years and with the advent of social media, I’ve enjoyed seeing my friends’ photos of their adopted Elves in surprise locations within their homes.

After the unspeakable school tragedy in Newtown, CT on Friday, a Facebook Friend shared this photo of one elf, Alfred, originally taken by Pumpkin Pie Photography:

Pumpkin Pie Photography image of Alfred the Elf

I also want to include a poem that references the Pied Piper legend drafted yesterday, December 15, by my twin sister, Caroline Dobson Chavez:

Thoughts on Newton, CT

Yesterday I spied the Pied Piper,
Playing a deluding dirge.
I watched in horror as fear and grief began to quickly merge,
Into an olden memory lost
Of a time gone by
When I was in the first grade
Without a care of why
Oh Piper, yesterday you may have briefly won
A crowd of small ones lost
But there is One whose love out-conquers you,
Who never counts the cost
He holds them now within His arms
And His mercy does outshine,
Any tune that you could create
to cause your pipe to whine
So I awoke today and thought anew,
Of your uninspired trance
I thought of Who is in control
And my heart began to dance
They’ll sing and laugh and play again
Someday with their parents too
They just will have to wait awhile ,
All because of you.
So for the future I hope you’ll stop
And march a separate way
And let all God’s children live and grow
To enjoy all their days.
But if you play and play you must
another mortal tune
Keep in mind they’re not yours to keep,
Because of my Savior’s boon.

At a time like this one in U.S. history when words are difficult to come by, to me, the photo of Alfred the Elf and the poem that my sister wrote really say it all.