Hobson's Choice

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Christmas miracle #2

Sometimes you understand why it's important to sit together in Quaker Meeting, why you can't do it on your own. When the messages all play off one another and come together, you understand how people come to make meaning together.

Yesterday, we were pondering the "true meaning of Christmas," not someone asserted, salvation through Jesus's death, but the chaos of humanity in our yearly affirmation of family and community. A man spoke about the line from "O Little Town of Bethlehem" which applies to all births: "The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight." Another talked about the turning of the year, how the days get shorter and then longer, just like death and birth. A woman recited, Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening, so that the poem finally made sense to me. It's always seemed such a high school poem to me, and I can never put out of my mind all those faux high school symbol readings: it's all about the decision not to commit suicide. But in her quiet recitatation, I saw how it could mean that sometimes we catch a glimpse of what death might be, even when we are not yet done with living.

And this is the message I got: we'll get the shortest day of the year this week. And then amazingly, the days will start to get longer again. On the day when a baby might have been born had she not died, the days will be begin to get longer. And in that sad paradox lies the meaning of Christmas and salvation. Salvation lies in the birth of Jesus and in all births, and also in all deaths and in the births that might have been, those that sometimes we feel, _should_ have been. Salvation comes because, despite grief and loss, despite the short days, we will see the sun again. The days will get longer, and hope rises again, even against our belief and our will. Another Christmas miracle.

7:51 a.m. - 2004-12-20
0 comments

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

previous - next

latest entry

about me

archives

DiaryLand

contact

Other diaries:

My cool neighbor Heather's blog

Literary Mama

J.B. Sundries

Donut Buzz

MUBAR

Sandi Kahn Shelton

>

read a random entry of mine

>