The Magic of Christmas It’s about dead center of the season of Advent as I ‘pen’ this missive. I remember a point in my life when I actually did ‘pen’ an article by writing it first in long hand with an actual pen. I preferred one that used real ink, a fountain pen they called it way back before a keyboard became my ‘pen’. Kind of dating myself? Yup. I have many memories of magical things happening around Christmas. Some of them I wrote down and put into a book. Others I just experienced, often through the eyes of my children or my beloved. Now I’m not talking about the magic of wizards, elves, and Harry Potter. I’m talking about the real stuff. What could be more magical than the gift of Christmas, which is the coming of the Son, who worked so many good deeds and miracles, the true magic stuff of God, that one of His eye witnesses said at the end of his record of the time of His presence here as one of us…. It is this disciple who testifies to these things and has written them, and we know that his testimony is true. There are also many other things that Jesus did, but if these were to be described individually, I do not think the whole world would contain the books that would be written. John 21:24-25 … the whole world could not contain the books about all the things that that were done by the Savior. Wow. Even more wow, I do believe even today with all our technology and billions of more people, this remains true. For quite some time now (a decade or more maybe?), I’ve struggled to see ‘the magic’. Life has a way of doing that to us. The older we get, cynicism creeps in around the edges of our thoughts. This is often caused by things like hardships endured in health or finances and the ultimate, the ‘loss’ of loved ones dear to us. Not just parents but siblings and best friends and the worst – a child. When I used to send out letters I had a long list. I never changed it, but many addresses on that list, that person no longer lives there, because they are with Him, in a state where it always feels like the best Christmas ever, and then some. I mean come on, living amongst the angels in His presence and hearing the actual, ‘Glory to God in the highest and peace to all people on who His favor rests…’ sung by seraphim and cherubim, led by the three Arch Angels, Michael, Raphael, and the one who delivered ‘the message’ to the mother of our living Lord, Gabriel, has to blow your mind. I remember a time taking a walk with my then eight-year-old daughter in the woods behind our old home north of town a week or so before the ‘big day’. It was evening, dark, the great white pines imposing in their massive girth and height, snow drifting softly, very little wind. The two of us liked these little adventures. I cannot remember how it happened, but it was one of those Advents I was struggling and suddenly it seemed the whole forest came to glorious light and life and I later wrote that it must have been the angel Gabriel, coming to restore my faith, and burn the image of one of the most powerful agents of God into my child’s eye, lodged forever in her soul. Yes, it was pretty intense. Our world now handles Christmas in a different way than when I grew up. It’s a lot more about the ‘things’, the material gifts, not the magical ones of recognizing the presence of God, which is everywhere. Add to this that it stresses many people out, whether in determining ‘what to get’, spending to much, not being able to spend enough or dealing with family situations that went dysfunctional. Yet still we gather, hoping that this Christmas will be a good one, maybe the best ever. Hope. We hope for this, even when we cease to admit it. My best friend and only lover and I are so blessed. Yes, we have some incurable degenerative health issues. Yes, we lost everything we owned back in the smash of 2008. But we think we are the luckiest parents and grandparents ever. It is because we see the love our grandchildren have for their parents (who probably are doing things a lot more right perhaps than we did). We feel the love these little children have for us. We know all our children love their spouses who also became my children. And we know they love us. Man, if that isn’t the best Christmas gift of magic of all, that love, that hope, that faith, those wonderful gifts from God to us, children who get it right – I don’t know what is. I’m a little more determined this year to find some Christmas magic like I used to all the time. I do not know if I will succeed. But something tells me it just might happen. One never knows, but one can always have faith and hope and just maybe see the miracles of His love, which by the way are still everywhere, just like Him. Clement
Posted on: Wed, 10 Dec 2014 12:44:47 +0000
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