Dear Friends,

What can I say about Christmas I haven’t said before?  This is the question running through my mind as I prepare to write a letter about Christmas.  Why do I believe I have said everything already?  One of the things which stops our creativity is to think we have done it all.  Once we look at our lives in that way the element of surprise has been removed.  What would Christmas be without the element of surprise?  What would our lives be like without any surprises?  I think I have something I can write about and ponder with you.

Christmas without any surprises – what a thought.  Don’t you think Mary and Joseph were surprised to find her with child?  The word we often use is amazed.  This is what surprise gives to us – the gift of amazement.  Living with a God who surprises us with the present of God’s Presence is more than we can understand.  This leads us to another element of being surprised - it is beyond our understanding.  Thank you God that we are no longer limited by our grasp of life so now we can be amazed by Yours.  Christmas is about a God who has everything except our desire to be in love with God.  Our human reality has distracted us with its baubles and so many incredibly unimportant things which have to be done!  God surprises us by coming without any baubles and in the incredibly important things found in silence.  In the stillness of the night a baby wails the birth cry of new life found in a returned desire to be in love with God.  The example of the Christ Child reveals the surprise waiting for us as we return God’s Love.

Now we are ready look at the everyday as a surprise.  One of life’s most precious wonders is waking up in the morning from our daily sleep.  We go to sleep believing we will wake once again.  Every day this promise is fulfilled.  To take this for granted is like not returning God’s Love.  If God knows the number of hairs on our head certainly God knows every experience of our day.  Living on this level enables us to appreciate all of life.  Yes, even the trying parts of it or those parts of ourselves we would rather not face in the mirror.  Someone who loves us accepts us as we are.  Now get ready for the gift of Christmas.  If we understand the unconditional love of such acts we won’t take advantage of them.  We will see them as stepping stones to who we are as the Christ Child in our time.

I love to be surprised.  I hope I will never tire of such gifts.  As I live on that level I discover I am now out of control and that is alright.  Like Mary and Joseph who were out of control with the birth of Jesus, I am also out of control with the birth of the Christ in me.  By being God’s hand maiden or servant we become Christ like people.  We surprise others with understandings of God which don’t tell people the right way to see or celebrate Christmas let alone life.  No we amaze them by encouraging them to accept God’s Invitation to a Christmas which will offer them the stability found in Unconditional Love.  Surprise, surprise surprise!

Peace,

Gary