December, 2006
Dear Friends,
Writing a letter for the December
newsletter stretches the creative muscles, because by necessity I’m working on
it in the middle of November, and other than the oddly premature Christmas
decorations that appeared in the shopping malls the day after Halloween,
there’s nothing surrounding me to put me in the mood for the holidays. I’m a big one for feeling the
festivities. Soon after Thanksgiving I
buy my tree, string some lights, tune my car radio to the Cool Yule station,
and immerse myself in the externals. I
started my purposeful holiday earnestness many years ago after a particularly
crazy December during which I busied myself during my few spare moments with
the obligatory parties and shopping, but come 12/26, I had a vague sense of
having missed the whole thing. Now I
make sure that doesn’t happen. I
surround myself with Christmas, while at the same time carefully avoiding any
extra work or family responsibilities that are within my control, so that I can
find time for both celebration and relaxation in the midst of the cacophony of
commercial noise that sometimes threatens to drown out the trumpets of joy
heralding the birth of our Savior.
But today I sit quietly in
my office, with no merry mistletoe music or red & green lights flashing me
into a cheery mood. And it occurs to me
that this is the perfect time to plan for another kind of Christmas that can
also get overlooked, even when one celebrates the season with all due Christian
joy: the quiet coming of Christ into our hearts that outlasts the
needle-dropping garland and the wax-dripping candles after they’re snuffed out
on Christmas night. Even ignoring the
commercial credit-card element of the season, the fact is that both the blast
of golden trumpets and the exquisite strains of quiet carols coming on a
midnight clear are mere externals. They
are tools to remind us of a reality that needs no season or song: Emmanuel.
God is with us. Observing no
special day or date, Christ is in each of us, waiting to be born into the
world.
This season, there is no
better gift you could give yourself, your family, your community, and your God,
than to find a deeper sense of the spirit of Jesus Christ that is already in
your heart. The perfect goodness with
which we were created in the likeness of God, that
Divine Light, is already burning within you and me. Christmas is at its core merely a fun
folderol created by men and women to remind us of the Truth. So this year I’m not even going to wait for Thanksgiving
to start immersing myself in Christmas.
Like the malls, I’m getting going now.
Every morning, and every chance I get during the day, I’m going to
meditate on the birth of Christ that is happening in my quiet soul at all
times. Joy to the
world, and to me. I’m not going
to miss anything this year.
Love and light,
Martin
To read Martin's letters from past months, please click here.