“Are we all like this, Grandma?” the little girl asked.
“Like what, honey?” Grandma said.
“Bigger on the inside than we are on the outside?”
Isn’t that a wonderful story?
Such a profound observation for a child to make about herself, and to put so clearly into words!
Wait until she stumbles across the questions that come after that one! The mysteries know no end.
I don’t know about you, but every year when we slide into the holidays, my own sense of life’s mysteries deepens.
In the tradition I was raised in, we call this time Christmas. It goes by many names, and holds many myths and messages.
It’s a poignant time, filled with the whole range of human emotions, all swirled together and intensified somehow. And we all want to find, at the core of it, the Answer.
But even when we see the glow of its light, we cannot say its true name. It’s unspeakable. It’s too large to be contained.
And yet, here it is, churning with longing, in our very hearts, wanting nothing more than to pour something wondrous and beautiful out into the world.
And we do our best to let it, even though we’ve no idea how.
We give it all we’ve got. Our music, our arts, our celebrations and games, our fashions and feasts, our tokens of love for family and friends, for strangers.
Last year, I heard someone say, “Christmas happens whenever you let God love someone through you.”
Maybe Christmas happens anytime we let God love any of his creations through us.
Letting Christmas happen seems like a beautiful way to end the year – being aware and appreciative of all that we’ve been given, letting the love that’s the Source and the Center of all flow without ceasing through us into the world.
Let Christmas happen as you look around you right now, as your thoughts travel to your loved ones, to your friends, as you take in both the clamor and the peace of this moment in time. Appreciate what you have. Everything. Let God love every last sparkle of his creation through you.
And may the wonder of its mysteries fill your world, inside and out.
Merry Christmas!
Warmly,
Susan
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay