DECEMBER 2012

Christmas is a Feeling! It’s nothing anyone can legislate. It’s nothing anyone can wish for you. It’s nothing anyone can even give you–with great or little love. Christmas is just a warm wonderful feeling that wells up inside of you and makes you long to put your arms around the world–the whole world–and everyone in the world and share–share everything you have–without holding back the least bit.
Christmas is Magic! Have you ever known anything like it? It turns stately green pines into twinkling, glittering, gorgeously-ornamented, fairyland fantasies. It turns animosity into understanding. It turns enemies into friends. It melts modern scrooges and makes love and giving pop out of their hearts like rabbits out of a magician’s hat.
Christmas is Music! Lovely haunting old melodies. Silent Night, Holy Night–do you remember the story? World War I–Christmas Eve, 1914–a shell-torn field. Soldiers in their trenches. Suddenly in the clear cold air the plaintive notes of the beloved carol played by a homesick bugler–from the American side a burst of sound–men’s voices–Silent Night, Holy Night–from the German side the same tune, Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht. A strange silence, a cordial interchange of cigarettes, an interlude of peaceful fraternizing in No Man’s Land, and then back to the business of war.
Christmas is Joy! The joy of planning for others, of giving to others, of sharing with others. The joy of complete selflessness–of deliberately laying one’s self aside, thoughts of oneself, of being glad effortlessly from the very farthermost corner of one’s heart–rejoicing over others–for others–about others–right around the world–excluding no one.
Christmas is a Star! On the top most branch of the Christmas tree in the humblest home or the most elegant mansion, on the community tree in the suburbs or the Salvation Army tree in the city square. A star that makes families want to cling together and sing together. To play together and stay together. A star that sends values skyrocketing–values that can’t possibly be listed on the Stock Exchange. Friendships that have waxed mundane–relationships that have been taken for granted–neighbors who have been misunderstood–children who have been labeled nuisances–suddenly and miraculously everything has a value–to be seen only with the inner eye–to be felt only in the "within ness" of one’s own being.
Christmas is a miracle of magic, music, joy, and feeling because the star that led the shepherds and the Wise Men to the humble manger in Bethlehem where the Christ Child was laid is the same star that leads you and me to the heart of God. Love is the heart of God, and love is the fulfilling of the law. Christmas is really only God’s love for us reflected in our love for everyone else.