One year, our family wanted to have a different kind of Christmas. We didn’t want frivolity or materialism to overpower the spirit of peace and good will that the first Christmas promised.
We hoped our children could learn to embrace the spiritual lessons of Christmas rather than a focus on getting more stuff. We decided together to forgo wrapped gifts to each other, and instead, to go to the mountains for the holiday. Being on a small budget, we were disappointed at first that we couldn’t find any place to stay in our price range, but as we were just about to give up, someone showed us a little cabin by a stream in the woods which we reserved for the holiday.
Not being involved with the usual hubbub of shopping and wrapping gifts, I’d spent quiet moments leading up to the trip reading the Bible accounts of Jesus’ birth.
As we drove up into the mountains a few days before Christmas, it began to snow. We settled in and the drifts quickly grew. The snow was beautiful. In our mild climate, we rarely have a white Christmas. The children and dog loved romping in it. After playing, we all got cozy inside the cabin with the wood stove blazing, listening to music, making cookies and decorations for the little tree we had cut from the forest that afternoon. Embracing my husband and our little boys, I could see how they naturally elicited my loving care and joy in being with them. It reminded me of something I’d read earlier that day in a Christmas article by Mary Baker Eddy. “Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given,” she quoted from the Bible and then added,
“In different ages the divine idea assumes different forms, according to humanity’s needs. In this age it assumes, more intelligently than ever before, the form of Christian healing. This is the babe we are to cherish. This is the babe that twines its loving arms about the neck of omnipotence, and calls forth infinite care from His loving heart. ” Mis pg 370
On that evening before Christmas, our younger son became feverish. As I put him to bed, we talked a little about how cherished he was by God and his family, and how he could cherish an expectation that God would heal him, as Jesus showed by healing many people in the Bible. Jesus illustrated God’s good will to all the world and divine Love’s willingness to heal us of “all the ills that flesh is heir to.”
When our son was settled in bed, I walked outside, thinking about embracing this babe of spiritual healing just as Mary had embraced her newborn babe in the stable. As the full moon shone exquisitely on the new fallen snow, I considered the beautiful significance of Christmas. I knew that the joy and promise of the first Christmas was alive this night, too, and could be felt by our whole family. Coming inside, I checked in with my little son and gently reassured him that God was caring for his every need. He went to sleep comfortably, slept all night, and awoke completely well in the morning.
That was a blest Christmas morning for all of us! We were reminded of the best gift of all–a feeling of the active presence and love of God in our lives. Joy filled our son’s steps that morning, and we felt close to God and so grateful for His help in that remote mountain cabin on Christmas eve.
May you also have this best of gifts on Christmas eve, and may peace on earth, goodwill, and healing bring Christmas into the whole of your new year.
Jerry
Thanks Cindy. We’ve had healing in our family this Christmas. It was a natural and beautiful thing to behold, through appreciating God’s ever-presence and powerful care.