That Cold and Starry Night

     Christmas has always been my favorite holiday.  There is something about those multi-colored Christmas lights, the sweet smell of pine from the tree, the nativity, and the bouncy (or solemn) Christmas music that strikes a cheery chord of peace deep down in my heart.  I love the Chinamen ornaments that are hung on the tree every year; the very Chinamen that my parents brought home from Hong Kong. I love the Christmas Cottage candle holder that looks warm and cozy.  I love the "Yorkie" teacup that gets hung on the dog's birthday every December 16. (Okay, so we have a few strange customs in our family; celebrating the dog's birthday is one of them).  I love that one stocking with blue ice and polar bears on which Mama embroidered "Tiarra Brooke".  I've got to say that stocking is my favorite.  And, yes, I even love the snow.  No other time of year gives me quite the same warm fuzzies as the Christmas season. 

     The older I get the more I love it, although I love it in a more philosophical way each year.  Every year the true Christmas story becomes sweeter and more meaningful to me.  I begin to see how truly special the heavenly miracle is.  It felt easy, or at any rate easier, as a child to fathom God coming to earth as a helpless human baby.  The imagination of a child is quite remarkable.  But, as I grow I start to detect how incomprehensible the gift of the Christ Child is.  Why would the God of Heaven, the God of the Universe, the God of Time be willing to subject himself to the human condition? Why would a God, who was never created, but has always existed, reduce His state to the physical body of a mortal?  Why would the God of creation, the God of love, the God of perfection, allow himself to endure the ailing anatomy of one of us?  How could any God love Earth's race even a little, much less with the purest of loves?   I don't know, and I know I never will.  How does one learn to accept that love can do anything, without wanting to know how?  It should be the most straight forward concept known to man, but instead, it is the most complicated.  Its a phenomenon that every individual struggles with.  I believe the angels even grapple with it.

     So, I sit here, Christmas lights reflecting in my eyes, pondering the night the Greatest Gift our universe has ever been given, came to be laid in a manger.  I imagine what the fear and awe the shepherds felt at seeing a host of heavenly beings, must've been like.  I long to have heard the clear angels voices sing, "Glory to God in the Highest.  PEACE and good will towards men."  I wonder how the wise men felt, knowing that they had at last found Heaven's Baby.  How did Mary feel?  How would you feel if you were given the task of raising God's son.  Is there anything that could possibly be more daunting?  I have to say, no! What was Joseph thinking?  And last, but of course not least, what was God the Father feeling on that cold, solemn night? 

   And with that, I wish you a Merry Christmas, and that God will bless your life in a special way this year.

~ Brooke