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While I write this it is snowing again, and A Peanuts Christmas soundtrack is playing in the background (it is THE best Christmas music, in my opinion).  The lights of our tree are on, and yes, “all is calm, all is bright.”  Except my puppy and cat competing for attention.  Oh well.  When you read this, the presents will be open, the wrapping paper thrown away, and life will be “back to normal.” 

            It’ll still be Christmas for me though.  My profession and others like mine mean the best opportunity to relax and dwell in peace with the reason for the season begins on Dec. 25.  I imagine that’s true for a lot of you as well.  Which is why I would love to see the traditions of the Twelve Days of Christmas come back!  (Except I don’t need “three French hens, two turtledoves, and a partridge in a pear tree.”)  So many people do so many thoughtful things leading up to Christmas, I just don’t have the bandwidth to do the same.  I truly wish I did.

            The Twelve Days run after Christmas, which means we have until Jan. 6 to keep the decorations up, listen to Christmas music, and eat cookies.  And send cards and maybe shop for presents.  It’s Twelve Days to do those things you want to do, but maybe without the rush that comes with the preparing.  We can prepare but not be ready.  I think readiness is more of a mental/ spiritual attitude, an “openness” that’s a fruit of faith.  You can prepare by going through the motions, but faith brings with it anticipation.  That openness to “what next” also has elements of readiness.  Which also makes faith forward-looking.  Call that hope.  I have a lot of hopes this Christmas. 

            It’s also Twelve Days to sit with the message of Christmas, which is broad and deep.  There are a lot of aspects to the story—social, personal, political—that we need to chew on.  The heart of Christmas is simple and deep.  Love came down, the fullness of God’s divinity became a human being in the fullest sense of the word—as a newborn baby!  That message is full of grace, truth, and love for us.  Twelve Days can’t exhaust it, neither can a lifetime!

Merry Christmas!

Pr. Christian