Post-Christmas Post

With a mixed sense of sadness and joy we packed up the Christmas decorations on Saturday. With two trees to dis-assemble and all the ornaments to boot this is no small feat. The wreath was removed from the front door. The red bows on the outside of the house were pulled down and packed away until next Christmas. One of my jobs was to pack up the small nativity creche. For a month or more it rested beneath the ornamental plates which are hanging on the side wall of the dining room. Perched on top of a table and laid atop a piece of maroon table-runner (a gift from a friend brought from far away India) it quietly and consistently served as a focal piece of my Advent/Christmas waiting and watching. The figures are pure white - unfinished - and evidence that less is more. Friends gave us these figures years ago when the girls were young. As I remember the nativity was wasting away in a dark attic, under-utilized, but not forgotten - just a second superfluous set. So now - each year - we bring them out of their shelved dungeon in the garage....the sheep...a cow and a camel......wise men and shepherds too (we don't try to figure all this stuff out - the Magi just keep showing up with the shepherds each year) ....there's an angel with quite a wing-span....and of course, .....Mary...Joseph and the smallest personage of all: baby Jesus.

Saturday, as I packed up the creche, I noticed that baby Jesus was the first figure I reached for. He was almost drowned by a tsunami wave of white tissue paper (after all the years its more brown wave than white). For some reason I paused and decided to wait.... and let Jesus be "King of the Hill". So beneath the ceramic Jesus I laid a foundation of all the other lesser characters in the story. After some careful packing - King Jesus was in his rightful place resting on top of them all. Soon the tattered box flaps were folded. The years-worn tape created a less than desirable seal. But now King Jesus reigns over his kingdom - atop two clear plastic storage tubs on a shelf in our garage. Sounds glamorous, huh? Oh the perks of Kingship......

There's something still which makes me want to pull this all back out, but then sanity kicks back in. There's something in me that wants to cling a bit longer to the baby Jesus....to draw close.....and listen carefully for his beating heart....to hold him in the same way we've cradled our own children (back when they would let us).From inside the box it's as if I can hear baby Jesus pleading: "Jon - Jon.. I am in here. Did you really think that you could box me up in a cardboard sepulchre or wrap me in any tissue paper grave clothes? You can always find me. I'm not the one who is adept at hiding!"

The prayer of John Baillie seems to draw a fitting thread through the tapestry of my most recent celebration of Jesus' birth.

O Holy Spirit of God, visit now this
soul of mine, and tarry within it

until eventide. Inspire all my
thoughts. Pervade all my imaginations.

Suggest all my decisions. Lodge in my
will's most inward citadel and

order all my doings. Be with me in my
silence and in my speech, in

my haste and in my leisure, in company
and in solitude, in the fresh-

ness of the morning and in the
weariness of the evening; and give me

grace at all times to rejoice in thy
mysterious companionship. Amen.

Mysterious companionship......but a mystery and a companionship to be experienced.....

In Christ,


Jon(the methodist)