Christmas Blues?
It is a strange paradox that Christmas, the celebration of love in human community, can also stir in us feelings of despair and loneliness. But maybe it’s not so strange after all. Christmas gets right in our face with the reality that love, kindness, and tender vulnerability are possible. It tells us that God is real, that God cares about us humans enough to express as a tiny baby, and that God can bring together people of disparate backgrounds and callings. Christmas tells us that human beings can live in love. “Really!” we may think with private cynicism. Right there is the opportunity. Catch your thought and hold it up into the love of Christmas. If you do that you might find some uncomfortable stirrings inside yourself–perhaps there are ancient unshed tears, maybe smoldering anger, and possibly even painful memories of relationships gone awry, or disappointments of the heart. Good! Right there is the opportunity. Catch your feelings and your memories and hold them up into the love of Christmas. Ask the Divine Parent God to hold you and heal you, to rock you and show you tender care. Feel the love that is shining toward you. If you want to go one step farther, with your mind’s eye place yourself in this beautiful painting of the Shepherds and Mary and Joseph adoring the Christ Child with such beaming, kindhearted reverence. Can you imagine yourself as the Divine Child in that manger–the one who is so gently and respectfully seen and loved? Can you see the love that is smiling at you through these people? That’s God’s love in human form. Can you see the light that is shining from within you? That’s God’s love too. Jesus came to teach us that the Christ, the Divine Child, lives in every person. He wants us to know that the same Light that is in Him is in us. Christmas is Jesus’ invitation to discover who you are and Who you belong to. It is his invitation to use the blues to find your Love and your Light.
Blessings for a Holy, Light and Love Filled Christmas,
Rev. Anna
