I remember long ago standing on the First Methodist Church steps caroling. I must have been around eleven or twelve, and I was participating in some Christmas program for the church’s youth. Our parents were there in attendance, and like the other kids, I felt we were rendering a great service to our elders…getting them in the Christmas spirit. Little did I know how correct I was! As a youngster, I had no idea that unbridled hope, faith, and love are more commonly the purview of the very young. How was I to know that there were a host of deterrents to the aforementioned hope, faith, and love waiting for me and my contemporaries? As I stood there in the chill of the  dark, early evening, there were actually a few snow flurries–which added to the transcendent aura of the occasion. We had only candles to  illumine our young, fresh faces, and our music sheets. As we sang “Joy To The World,” I felt that joy deep in my heart. “Oh Come All Ye Faithful,” “Silent Night,” “We Three Kings,” “It Came Upon A Midnight Clear,” and other Christmas hymns left me feeling no doubt that the God of all the Universe “had my back.” Mine was to be a GREAT LIFE!

Fast forward a few decades, and I can say unequivocally that life has not been that easy. I have learned to be skeptical, to doubt, to hold back, to fear rejection, to fear ridicule, to fear being a sucker or a shmuck. The twelve-year-old girl who had the world by the tail has, like most mortals, been put in her place more than once by LIFE. Yet, looking at some of my contemporaries, I know I have fared far better. I have been blessed tremendously! Some friends have perished along the way. Others have had to deal with the “thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to”: diabetes, cancer, cardio-vascular disease, etc. And then there are the emotional “shocks” of divorce, addiction, poverty, and of course,  death.

Yes, a lot has changed since I stood on those steps, knowing that something magical and fantastic would happen to me if I stuck close to God. I have changed, but God has not. And the reason for which we celebrate Christmas, Jesus the Christ, is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Scripture tells us that we must come to God as a little child. Children are quick to love, quick to laugh, quick to believe, quick to forgive, and quick to trust in someone wiser and stronger than they. And the happy reality is that we all are still little children– a bit frightened, in unfamiliar territory as we navigate the life cycle, not knowing what tomorrow holds, (or if, in fact, we will still be here tomorrow!) needing to love and to be loved. Nothing has really changed. We still have the greatest Santa Claus of all time: God, the giver of “every good and perfect gift coming down from above.” We ourselves are the stumbling blocks to the unbridled joy and expectation of a wonderful future. So, this Christmas, I pray for each of us, that we can dare to believe, that we can dare to let that child inside us be transformed by the mystery and magic that is inherent to the season–not because a materialistic Hollywood tells us so, but because the God of the Universe loves us and promises to care for us, if only we will trust Him! Merry Christmas to all!