and a happy New Year...
The more I really think about the Christmas story, the more I like it. The more I really, truly think about the reality of the story we have glossed over to us since childhood. The more I think about how young and scared Mary was, how dirty that barn was, how the human incarnation of the God we worship was wrapped in rags, I fall more in love with Christmas. We all get so caught up in it all. And the lights, the mistletoe, the presents, they’re great, they really are. But they’re great because they do one thing: bring people together. That’s what the holidays, yes holidays, are supposed to do. We get caught up in trying to figure out what this season is all about, and we miss it. We miss it. We miss the fact that it’s holding hands with your mother during candlelight service, while missing calls on your phone from people who love you. It’s calling them later, curling up with classic movies and cocoa. It’s a voice on Christmas Eve that, no matter how many miles away the speaker is, keeps you warm. It’s about a moment in time, a moment when the world came together, and, if you happen to subscribe to a Christian belief system, something wonderful and divine showed up in our world. Showed up in our world without anything going for him, wrapped up in scraps of clothing in a barn, laid in troth. Came into a world that was messy, hung out with messed up people and died a messy death. To me, the Christmas story is about the fact that whatever it is that’s divine out there, it’s, he or she, is not afraid of a mess. It is not afraid of our messed up lives. To me, it’s about the fact that tomorrow can be better than today, and that we can help it be so. It’s about being with the people you love and seeing what you can do together.
“And this shall be a sign unto you, you shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger”
That’s what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.
2006 is almost over. 2006, the year I graduated, the year I left Texas, the year I went to college, the year I found everything I was searching for. 2007 is new. 2007 is scary. And 2007 could be the greatest thing to ever happen to me.
I’m having a great time, I have great friends, I’m in New York and I’m in love.
At this moment, life couldn’t be better.
Merry Christmas everyone.
“And this shall be a sign unto you, you shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger”
That’s what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.
2006 is almost over. 2006, the year I graduated, the year I left Texas, the year I went to college, the year I found everything I was searching for. 2007 is new. 2007 is scary. And 2007 could be the greatest thing to ever happen to me.
I’m having a great time, I have great friends, I’m in New York and I’m in love.
At this moment, life couldn’t be better.
Merry Christmas everyone.