A CHRISTMAS STORY

In the beginning the elohim created skies and earth.

Welcome back.  I just love this time of year.  This is the first year I can remember when I heard Christmas songs the week before Thanksgiving and did not change the station.  I must have needed Christmas carols at this time in my life.

I was so happy when the week before our recent Thanksgiving Day, I saw a Salvation Army volunteer ringing her bell beside her red offering bowl in front of Kroger.  

I said, "Welcome back!"  

Her face registered surprise.  She grinned broadly and said, "Thank you!  Merry Christmas!"

"Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah!"

I know for a lot of people this time of year yanks hard at their heart strings.  I know, because I've experienced lonely Yuletides.  Even now, I sense the angst in myself as I anticipate a Christmas with family and friends.

For a lot of Americans, Christmas is a routine that includes travel.  It's finagling finances to afford the gifts, the cards, the eating out, and the long drive or airport ordeal.  

It's also finagling time.  Which relatives and friends will we visit?  How long do we visit them?  How many books should we take to read?   (The answer:  zero, but take them anyway.)

Visiting relatives can be stressful as everyone knows who has attempted it.  It's stressful having me visit. 

Being knocked out of our daily routine makes busy the peace that should dominate our Christmas experience.  

I wonder if Christmas time for everyone, no matter where they are in life, no matter what they believe, creates a shift, even if it is a moment of ever-so-slight good will.

I have always loved this time of year.  I imagine Christmas time being the climax of a freshly lived, annual holiday story.

The story begins with Thanksgiving, giving thanks, and the action rises for days until it climaxes on Christmas Day.  

After the presents are opened, a strange sensation occurs when the action in the holiday story falls.  Activity may go on as we depart our relatives or return gifts, but we sense some kind of letdown.  

The holiday story moves to its crowning denouement, which is New Year's Day, my favorite holiday, the Gentile Yom Kippur.  

That is the time when I reflect on the person I've been as I resolve to be better next year.  

I experience New Years Day the way I experience any good story I read, even during sad times, which are experienced as stories with sad, but never final, endings.

I have been transformed by stories I read.  Each time, I am transformed following those weeks that are the holiday story I live.

I pray all our stories are special this year.

Although I have not mentioned our God of love in this post, does it not radiate faith, hope, and love?  I hope it does.

Blessings…