The most surprising gift of Christmas!

Jan 3, 2012 by Lancia E. Smith

January 3rd – the ninth day of Christmas

Sweet, quiet January stretches out kindly and demurely ahead of me now.  The wild flurry and strain of the year behind me is lost in the disorder and happy hearted abandon of December.

The most surprising gift of Christmas is what comes “after” it.  The gift of a new beginning.  Clean, unbroken, unstained by failure and baggage, limitations and doubt. That tiny baby boy gives me more than I can ever give myself with all the best of my efforts.  Without judgment or condemnation He gives me a new start.  New.  What breath taking beauty lays in that word.  New.  He gives me a new day.

This  baby that entered my world through a woman in a stable contained in His tiny body the power of the universe and laid down glory to become like me.  Human. The ancient, oft told tale of the immortal taking on mortality for love of a mortal, in this case all mortals, lays firmly centered in the core of all human history, not just our fables. All the world spins on a different axis because He entered as one of us and stayed. This baby that was so newly born and clothed in our same flesh was the Word Himself Who existed before Time and created all that is.   Creator, Servant-King, Holy Son of God become man, conqueror of death– by the power of His Love, He makes all things new!

I don’t take this seriously enough, this reality of new beginnings.  If I did I would carry so much less baggage from one day to the next, from one meeting to the next.  But I have the choice today, this moment to take Him hard at His word and receive His gift of a new beginning draped in grace. And in receiving it I can live well each day, love well at each meeting, dress in the Joy of each moment, confess my sin and hurts by the hour, close each day in peace with a clean conscience, sleep in the peace of His love, and wake to a new beginning unencumbered with yesterday’s grief, regrets, mistakes. That is my new year’s resolution. To listen to Him more completely, be more of a child, be happier in each moment, worry less, love with more courage and heart, cry quicker and pretend less to be strong, give freely, laugh more, and to look for beauty, goodness and truth wherever I am. Because He is there.

Ah, to be new!  Happy new beginnings to you, friend! May you find the well of blessing today.

 

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