“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth…..And I heard a loud voice saying,”See, the home of God is among mortals.” Revelation 21:1a, 3a
The last several days have been filled with so much that I have not made it to the computer to write. I trust that for most people these days leading to Christmas and those between its celebration and that of New Year’s has a special quality unlike any other of the year. Even if we are not on holiday from work during this time, the days have a certain ‘other’ quality to them. People seem to be doing the tasks of their days in a different order. The days seem to have a fluidity, melting one into the other. And so I find myself suspended between the beautiful intensity that leads to the celebration of Christmas and the slow slide into 2011.
As I think back on the celebration of Christmas Eve, I am reminded of its sweetness. Moving among several worship services,as I am privileged to do, I am struck with the deep joy I experienced. So many of the people I encountered had such a look of expectation in their eyes. Of course, the children I spoke with had dreams of what the next morning might hold for them. Would Santa have heard their pleas? I spoke to two young ones whose cheeks grew redder and redder, their eyes brighter and brighter, as they told me their hopes. How they were able to sleep that night is a wonder!
But it wasn’t just the children who carried a deep longing their eyes. The adults, too, had an extra sparkle. For some it was the grandchild whose hand they held that caused that extra glow. For others it was the presence of a new love or a visiting relative who stood beside them being introduced to friends and family. Still others were present to the simplicity of being in a faith community they hold dear for yet another blessed year.
This story we enter each year, the Christmas story, calls to some very deep part of who we are. The birth of this tiny child who would alter the world forever rings true for each of us in different ways. And yet any one who has given birth, who has been a parent or acted as one, knows that this same thing can be said of all children. Each birth brings a world shattering experience. This tiny one comes into our world and nothing is ever the same again. Our pain is deeper, our joy more overwhelming. Indeed, each of us have caused such an event in the lives who brought us into the world.
As the children of our faith community donned their angel wings, shepherd costumes and Magi crowns again this year, we all sat rapt with attention. It is the same story we have heard time and again. But the truth is that we are not the same and so the story comes to us in new ways. We hear with deeper listening. We sense it with a heart-space grown full of hope. We know the shepherd in each of us and long to be attentive and nurturing for all placed in our care. We recognize the Magi-searching within each of us…hoping for a Star to guide our way. We want to take on the beautiful song-like courage of the angels who bring God’s constant message: “Fear not! Fear not!” And like Mary and Joseph we pray to be surprised by the Holy in ways we cannot turn from, ways we can truly ‘ponder in our hearts’.
During these days which are unlike any others, suspended between the celebration of Christmas and all it can bring and the hope of a new year, I invite you to rest in this on-between place. Perhaps what Christmas has brought will inform the ways in which we each walk into 2011. This expectation for which our eyes glowed and our hearts raced might carry us into a new age. And the world might never be the same again.
It is something for which to hope…..and pray.