Finding Christmas

It all started with the Eucharisteo Lady, how she followed the lights.

And then in a story, a little girl went looking for Christmas on a starry night . . .

First came the candles. From cupboards, the Advent wreath.

Then the jars. Twelve. For the twelve days of Christmas, or for a new year with those letters---one, two. It didn't matter. They just needed to shine.

Then the dirt. Shoveled from the ground, from which those hearts of ours were wrought, a breath of life filling its dirty, dusty channels and then---in the darkness, a sound, a swelling, a breathing in of the life. Life. The awakening of a miracle.

Then the waiting, the looking, the hope. Jars of dirt, unlit, silent. Listening for Him. Waiting for Him.

And then into a darkness . . . He comes. Christmas. One by one He ignites the candles, those lights, once jars of dirt. Filling them. Light in the black world. He beckons. He calls. We pull into our coats, our mittens. We follow the lights. Searching for it . . .

All around is glimmering snow as we travel this new world. Saved by light, the darkening surrounding us, pointing the way. The unknown lying ahead, and we can't see through the unknown.
But we follow the lights, our own burning deep.

We see the hay. We hear the animal sounds. We catch the whiff of a barn. A lonely stable out on a prairie.

But perhaps not so lonely. How can a place be all alone when it's filled with such light?

How can a place be silent when the ringing of His crying voice calls out from a manager? A manger? When He is a King up in heaven? We can only shake our heads, and wonder.

Here, real. Those tears in our eyes. We can touch it. "God with us." Following a light leading us through darkness, igniting our souls, one after the other. Christmas. Him. The King.



Jesus. While angels sang around Him.

While the hay scratched His soft skin,

and kings bowed down low,

and the humblest of men, shepherds,

were the first to know, first to see angels.

First to understand.

He'd come for them, too.

This is Christmas.

So bring Him incense--prayer.

Bring Him gold--your heart.

Bring Him myrrh--your thanksgiving. Eucharisteo.

Thank you, Jesus.