Christmas Revelation

It was my 45th Christmas before I finally figured out the one essential moment when my soul tells me it’s Christmas. It is the moment when in my heart, I visit the manger. All else is preparation, periphery. The defining moment for me personally, comes in the stable, by the manger.

For my family, Christmas is when we gather around and open our presents. It is a rare and special thing for our family to spend any time together not being entertained. So we gather, we give, we receive, we thank, we enjoy.

For my heart to know Christmas, it is the journey to the manger, and it is very personal. Usually that comes in the normal course of our Christmas events, a church play, a drama or musical performance. Maybe even a sermon. I suppose that is why any Christmas drama I was involved with at church was incomplete without a manger scene. You could take a thousand different paths to get there, but a Christmas drama of any sort always had to end at the manger.

When an ice storm cancelled our Christmas Eve service several years ago, we attended a wonderful service elsewhere, but it didn’t take me to the manger. And we didn’t go to a Christmas play at the regional theater, we went to a Holiday Show. It felt empty. It had no soul.

And then I read the B.C. Christmas Day comic strip. I read the message in the stars, and I joined the characters at the entrance to the stable. And in that moment I understood: This is the heart of Christmas to me. I enter the stable, and stand with the shepherds and the wise men in adoration of Mary, Joseph, and the new-born King, Emmanuel, the baby Jesus.

God rest ye merry, gentle folk. Oh come, let us adore Him.