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The problem with that attitude is that it reveals exactly how mistaken we are about the nature of Christmas. Properly understood, Christmas is not just a day or even a season of the year—an event on the calendar that arrives and passes. No, Christmas is much more than that. It is a permanent change that enters into our world, “for keeps,” affecting every one of our attitudes, actions, and relationships for the rest of our lives. Howard Thurman in a collection called The Work of Christmas puts it this way: When
the angels’ song is stilled, — To find the lost Christmas is, you see, not an END of anything. It is the beginning of a whole new way of understanding the world, each other, and ourselves. Christmas is the arrival date for a gift that must be opened up and put to use if it is to make any difference at all. It all STARTS right now. Christmas is God’s way of presenting himself to us, in-person, offering to enter into our hearts to STAY. The Incarnation is, literally, “the enfleshment”—God’s compassionate Spirit is born within each of us, yearning to find daily expression in actions of Thanks-living. Where
do we go from here? We go out, each one of us, to carry God’s
gift into that |
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