CHRISTMAS SUPPLIES

The rush begins: wrapping, baking, shipping shopping, writing, sending, greeting, gathering. It all fills our days; we trade in the commerce of the world when underneath we feel that perhaps Christmas itself may exhaust us. How can this be? The very Christ who came to bring us Life, can find no room in our schedules, our hearts, or our minds. In the celebration of His coming we wear ourselves out; I have even overheard someone say, “Christmas is killing me.”

We go through the dark days of late Advent in a kind of stupor, cramming more and more into less and less of ourselves. We are swallowed by the whale of consumerism and indulgence and we wonder, “Why am I so exhausted?” I confess to being caught by the bait as well, as I shop for children, sew pajamas, deliver presents and make dozens of cookies as my soul loses her footing on shifting sand.

I can, “Be still and know He is God.” The lights this morning on the Christmas tree quiet me. I need only a few small minutes to center myself and find Peace again. He has come and in His coming I am known and loved, held and blessed. How can I carry this into the frantic day, the endless list?

It is as if there is a little child within who longs to be held this Christmas and shown her Father's heart. Christ has come to show us the Way to the Father and I can choose to sit in the Light of His Presence, let it rekindle in me hope and joy, peace and love and from this fountain I can live and move and have my being.

Need supplies for your soul as your Christmas celebrations continue?

Medicine from Sacred Writings:

“John tells us of the goods relating to the soul which Jesus supplies to us by His coming; and these he has darkly described in one sentence, when he says, “And the Life was the Light of men.”

John Chrysostom Fourth Century