Joy of Christmas Day ~ 2005

All the wonder and work and makings of Christmas came together this year at midnight Christmas Eve. Church services had a candlelight service and welcoming of God among us and awakening to His presence, my mom oohing and aahing with me at the beautifully decorated houses as we drove home in the dark. When I started to put the batteries in my plastic candles that I put in my windows for the Christ Child, I discovered they didn't work, none of them. I was surprised. Oh well. The minister had told us that God and His heaven will break in and we can't stop it like the angels with the shepherds. I believed this because of a vision I had that I had written about in my book The Rain Prayer. For several days, I felt the pressing, an urgency, a presence.

I wrapped boxes filled with prayers this year to go under my tree. One by one they seem to be answered.

The Arctic Refuge is safe once again, the troops are beginning to be withdrawn from Iraq, my family has more unity in it than in past years, my health is better, my daughter and grandchildren are communicating better and my son-in-law is almost finished with a certificate program for work, I keep hoping they will move here.

At midnight, my mom was fast asleep and I was watching Santa taking off with his reindeer and sleigh full of presents in The Polar Express, exactly at midnight, when I realized the candle was lit for the Christ Child.

I always light a real candle by a nativity set I made out of clay back over 10 years ago, in a free art studio in the Tenderloin in San Francisco. It is rough and unglazed red clay. Joseph, Mary, Baby Jesus and the Angel are all there in an unpainted pine stable that has a music box that plays Silent Night. There are a couple of artificial palm trees I found and a red clay candle holder. I had lit that candle earlier. I watched the shadows flicker across the deep shadows on the faces of the Holy Family. It was beautiful.

Today, my mom got a candle with Roman Frankencense so we lit it and put it by the big crib on the living room that has a beautiful Italian porcelain baby Jesus. He is laying in some straw in a log crib. The scent fills the house.

We are having such a spiritual Christmas. We both wanted peace for Christmas and I believe we are beginning to receive our gifts!

I love this graphic because I think of the Holy Family as very human and while they were on display to the world, they also loved one another. Joseph held the baby Jesus and gave his tired wife some rest. Maybe the shepherds had just left and the wise men hadn't arrived yet. Mary got in a nap.

My mom is napping now. When she gets up we are going to a movie and then I am fixing a big Christmas supper. She brought the pie.

Thank you Father God and my Prince of Peace.