Simply having a Christmastime.

Something as natural and epic as a child’s birth.  Something as unadorned as a stable. Something as lonely as being far from your home. Something as unexpected as shepherds and royal astrologers.  The nativity is exceptional. Yet unassuming.

I am always struck by the words of ‘Silent Night’ where we have silence, holiness, calmness and brightness.  I feel as if the stable in Bethlehem is like a candle burning in a dark, cold church. You don’t need the painted ceilings of the Vatican or the rising and falling of Bach choruses. You just need to contemplate that scene in Bethlehem over two thousand years ago. 

All the paraphernalia and business that came after that scene. The persecutions, the religious wars, the political domination of men in the Church….all that doesn’t interest me in the slightest.

I want to wake up in Christmas morning “with the dawn of redeeming grace.”