By the Way: Happy Christmastide, friends
By Medicine Hat News on December 29, 2018.
For many years after my siblings and I were grown, our family Christmas gatherings were leisurely affairs. It was only once everyone was awake, had breakfast, and our coffees were topped up that we gathered around the tree and exchanged gifts. We opened them one by one in turns, so everyone could fully appreciate the experience. Then a fresh crop of babies arrived, and as they grew, we witnessed the return of the mad Christmas morning scramble by dawn’s early light, leaving us elders dazed and confused, adrift in a sea of ribbons and torn wrapping paper. As much fun as it is to witness through bleary eyes the early morning mayhem, as lovely as it is to reap a harvest of joy when I hear, “Thank you, Nana!” there is always a quiet time when all the gifts have been opened and the festive meal has been consumed. This is my favourite part of Christmas, when I can exhale and savour “the reason for the season.” As many Christians know, there are 12 days in the Christmas season, extending from Dec. 25 to Jan. 5, the Eve of Epiphany. This commemorates the voyage of the Magi to bestow their precious gifts upon our Saviour, newly-born and swaddled in the bosom of his earthly family. In our own way, I think we Christians are on our own journey across the desert, through the holy land to Bethlehem, and the revelation of the great paradox there. So it is we find ourselves here in this time of quiet in the midst of Christmastide, contemplating this baby. Our joy is bittersweet as we recall the brief span of his human lifetime. The manner of his passing from this plane of existence to the heavenly realm looms on the periphery, but for now, we see this babe resting in Mary’s arms for what he is; a baby who is as entirely vulnerable as any of us every was in infancy. Viewing him in this way — even as we imperfectly offer our gratitude for the gift he is destined to bestow upon us all through his death — our instinct is to protect this child from the evils of the world as we would one of our own. We are protective of this tiny babe even as we long for his protective presence around us and call upon his power to be made manifest — the Light of the world against which no darkness can prevail, the seed of our salvation and the herald of our redemption. Peace, friends, and may the light of the Christ child always be with you. Kristy Reimers-Loader is chaplain, Medicine Hat Ecumenical Campus Ministry. 6-5
