It’s Christmas morning, and the streetlights are coloring everything on the deserted street yellow as we drive home. We’ve done a scant hour of “sports,” which actually means loosening up the muscles on the machines and walking for half an hour. That’s enough for the holiday and helps the old bones get through the days ahead. The streets are decorated here and there with Christmas lights, sometimes quite garish and reminiscent of advertising campaigns. Sometimes they are also subtle and beautiful, but a Christmas mood somehow does not arise. Rather, we are thinking that after the holidays there will be restrictions because we cannot get a grip on the virus. Many are afraid, others are angry, we all have to be patient.
The winter solstice brings longer days, maybe we are fooled by the freezing cold and think that it will be brighter sooner than it really is. In any case, it is a positive turn and an indication of spring, which will gradually appear on the horizon. This is also the deeper meaning of the setting of Christmas in December, that the days are beginning to get light, that hope is germinating, and redemption is approaching. Spring is symbolic of salvation from bondage, liberation to begin a new life, like the plants in the garden, like the chicks, the lambs, and all of nature around you. Even the viral infections have decreased somewhat in the spring and summer.
We long for spring and are delighted by the many birds that already visit us in our garden, looking for food. For this they perform aerial acrobatics, demonstrating a liveliness that we sometimes lose at this time of year. The squirrels join them and sit on the fence nibbling on the nuts that we laid out. I think as I watch that the animals know nothing of Christmas, and yet they are alive and seem happy to get something to nibble on. The gifts they get are not wrapped, but sometimes a titmouse, robin or squirrel will come to our window as if to say thank you.
I wonder if we can use this as a stimulus to make a sign of gratitude in the midst of all the uncertainty we have right now, that we can live and celebrate Christmas while it is different for many others. Is there is something we can take away from the symbolic impact of the holidays to prepare us for what is to come? I think there are some things that are completely out of place when we celebrate Christmas because they are so superficial and short-lived and don’t even help us through the holidays. But if we follow the symbolism and put it into practice in our lives, then it can have lasting meaning.
The older and wiser I get,
The clearer it is to me now more than ever,
That any self-proclaimed “Christian” today,
Were the ones jeering, laughing, mocking,
Throwing rotten food and fæces at Christ,
When he carried the Crucifix to his death.
The ‘Christian’ religion is one gigantic, spectacular Farce of Hypocrisy.
A mass of Sheeple led to slaughter. Christians have no Love for Christ, at all.
May everyone enjoy this holiday season with peace and love for self and for others. It is a time for hope.
Unconditional love is the only gift one can give and get at the same time.
Some Christian do not celebrate Christmas because they believe it has pagan origins. They value purity in their tradition.
More common seem to be those that celebrate Christmas without believing in Christ. Then there are those that don’t celebrate Christmas because they don’t believe in Christ. Lastly there are those who celebrate Christmas because they believe in Christ.
For those who celebrate Christmas there’s the question of how do you celebrate? How do you enchant a disenchanted world?
Regarding paganism… If the mystics got something right, does that mean we are forbidden from using it? How do we know they didn’t steal it (the intellectual thieves they still are!) & bury its true origins? Solution: Use the tests of truth against it. Examine everything. Hold fast to the good. The legit good, not the mystic good. If it’s true, it’s origin is God.
Enchant… love people despite their crap. Legit crap or mystic crap. Just love.
the definition doesn’t tell me is truth is automatically good and beautiful…so, you are a Christian and all you know of truth is found there, in the original Greek.
Look up Aletheia = truth corrupted by the roman veritas.
No wonder you like matrix Resurrections…it was full of Abrahamic narratives.
Like watching an updated story of the Christ, who finally becomes a hermaphrodite, in accordance with its mysticism.
First off, I think that much of our Christian tradition has origins elsewhere, but that isn’t the issue, is it? When I think about culture that I value, I know that much of it is inspired by other people, something that one has seen, heard or read jogs an idea and it becomes a new story. Even the retelling of a story becomes a new story (like Peter Jackson’s the Lord of the Rings). Stories get updates and stories have varying qualities.
For me, the celebration of Christmas is a quiet affair, and I revel in the symbolism, and the joy and love I see in others. The children with their smiling faces, the seniors who are thankful for a hug, and seeing they are not forgotten. The thankfulness of heavy goods drivers stuck on a carpark in the cold, surprised by some generous spirit. There are so many aspects of Christmas that are wholesome effects of a legend that is told in many ways about the globe. It is a result of a collective spirit that does us good.
It is like Ichthus says, “love people despite their crap. Just love.”
We had our son visiting us from Cologne, and although he is nearly forty, his pleasure at being given small presents from us, his talkativeness, and expressed thanks for being driven back home, is reason enough to be thankful for Christmas. You can knock it, like some have, but the overall good it does, speaks for it.