Aglow with friendship's light

 

Many of my readers know that I have an Etsy shop where I am selling much of the contents of a New Hampshire attic.  Mostly I'm selling used greeting cards and children's books.  Recently I was listing the card pictured above.  If you happen to be acquainted with vintage Christmas cards, you will recognize this as a Brownie Christmas card by Rust Craft.  They were very popular back in the 1940s and 1950s.  This one is a newer card, but I believe it is reprinted from an older design.  I think the artist is Erica von Kager, but there is no signature so I'm not sure.

See the little Brownie emblem from the card back?

  This Christmas card image is charming, featuring six or seven small angels carrying lanterns. They are making their way through a village of tall stone buildings and lighting the street lamps. It seems as if they are going into the buildings to light lamps there also. Above the town is a night sky in a pretty dark blue, spangled with stars. Although this is not a bright colorful Christmas card, it is gilded with many touches of metallic gold and is quite charming.

I do realize that we have no idea what angels truly look like (except that sometimes in the Bible we see them looking like very ordinary people, and in other instances they are so obviously celestial beings that they caution people not to be afraid of them).  Almost certainly they don't look like the ones in this image.  But I still find it charming, and the little poem inside the card is absolutely delightful:

A well-worn path runs through our thoughts,
With lighted lamps along the way,
That mark the memories we share
Of many a happy bygone day. 
And now that Christmas time is here
Those lamps are shining bright
With memories and thoughts of you
Aglow with friendship's light.

That is so beautiful to me.  It's very interesting in reading these old cards that many carry very simple messages, something as basic as "Merry Christmas" or "Season's Greetings" while others include more sentimental messages for friends and family.  In this particular card, the message itself was quite short and simple: "Thinking of you with best wishes at Christmas", but then on the facing side was the sweet little poem above.  What dear friendships the unknown writer must have had in mind when he or she penned these words!

I know this much: their words moved me to tears.