In Good Faith: Christmas Rising

 Merry Christmas! Here's a column I wrote for the local paper. 

Christmas Rising

One of the great things about living in South Florida in December is the ability to take morning

walks along the beach. I mean, technically I could have done this when I lived in New England, but it would have been a lot less pleasant. Jack Frost nipping at your nose, and all that. Frankly, I really don’t need to see my breath ever again.

But I love taking our dogs for walks on the beach every morning and watching the sunrise. Like snowflakes — which I also don’t miss — no two sunrises are alike. The interplay between light and clouds, horizon and sky leads to infinite possibilities and a kaleidoscope of ever-changing hues. If you ever wonder whether there is, in fact, a God, I highly recommend daily walks along the beach. And this has absolutely nothing to do with that whole “footprints in the sand” business. 

One of the things I can’t help but notice on these walks is the number of people holding up cell phones to capture the moment. At one level, I get it. When we experience stunning beauty, we want to capture it, or memorialize it by adding it to our phone’s camera roll. We want to relive special moments, or what I would consider glimpses of glory, over and over again.

Of course, there are two problems with this. First, despite all the advances in cell phone technology, our amateur images can’t possibly capture the wonder of creation. They can’t recreate what your eyes see and what your heart experiences when the sun breaks the plane on the horizon at the dawn of a new day. 

And second, I want to yell in my best grumpy old man voice, “Put down your phones! Look at the beauty that surrounds you!” I don’t do this, though. Mostly because it would scare the dogs. I simply wish people would delight in the natural beauty of the earth rather than trying to be the next great Instagram influencer. 

One of the great spiritual gifts is the joy of wonder. Not trying to capture an image of wonder, but simply the wonder itself. Christmas is a season of wonder. I don’t mean this in the “It’s the most wonderful time of the year” kind of way. Because that just makes me think of a car commercial. Nissan, I think. 

But to revel in the “wonders of his love,” as we sing in Joy to the World, is at the heart of the nativity story. The shepherds quake, the angels sing, and the world rejoices as God enters the world in human form. For Christians, the Son of Righteousness shines brighter than even the sun itself. And all we can do is gaze in wide wonder as the Christ child is born anew in our hearts and in our world.

However and wherever you celebrate Christmas this year, whether with us at Bethesda-by-the-Sea in Palm Beach or at another spiritual home, please know that you yourself are a wonder of God’s love. The same God who created the heavens and the earth, the moon and sun and stars, also created you and loves you with deep and reckless abandon. 

Through the birth of God’s son, a light truly does shine in the darkness at Christmas. May the wonders of his love be with you and your loved ones this holy season.

Photo credit: Juergen Roth