My neighbors have a couple of those new laser lights aimed at their big oak tree. I admit that I step out into the cold every night just to gaze at it-even if I’ve already seen it when getting home. It is dazzling and it sets me into a musing about wonder. Christmas always does that to me. It seems to open up portals into my soul that no other time of year can. I think it is the mystery of the Christmas story. The birth of that tiny baby gathered together people that would under other any other circumstances not mix. But the anticipation of God’s presence in this often hurtful world touched a place inside kings, shepherds, a young couple, angels, an innkeeper, farm animals, and who knows who else. They were moved at a depth where they knew that outer status and circumstance was inconsequential. They came drawn by the life they had in common. That’s what we are called to this Christmas – recognizing the life we have in common with those who seem different from us. Reaching across what look like divides to extend connection weaves a tissue of love that saves us all. That’s why the Christ Child came. And now a word about that from the author J.R.R. Tolkien via Gandalf, “Some believe it is only great power that can hold evil in check, but that is not what I have found. I found it is the small everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keep the darkness at bay-small acts of kindness and love.”
