“And when we give each other Christmas gifts in His name, let us remember that He has given us the sun and the moon and the stars, and the earth with its forests and mountains and oceans— and all that lives and moves upon them. He has given us all green things and everything that blossoms and bears fruit, and all that we quarrel about and all that we have misused— and to save us from our foolishness, from all our sins, He came down to earth, and gave us Himself.”
Sigrid Undset, Kristin Lavransdatter
"O that I could find in the desert a wayside shelter for travelers, that I might depart from my people. For they are all adulterers, an unfaithful mob of traitors. Their tongues are devious weapons, bent like drawn bows. With falsehoods rather than truth they have gained power. They commit one crime after another. They do not know me, says the Lord. I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins, the lair of jackals. I will lay waste to Judah, a desolation where no one can live."
Jeremiah 9:2-3,11