Christmas Message
My paternal grandfather passed away one year, four months and three days before I came into this life. He survived service in the Great War – “the war to end all wars”. While in France he had an experience that turned into something wonderful in his life that spanned over twenty years. He left behind quite a legacy. One of those legacies was a yearly Christmas postcard. These he wrote himself and had printed, then sent out to family, friends and business associates. Some in the family say he did it initially (beginning Christmas 1916) because he could not afford to purchase cards to send out. Maybe – but I have learned his heart through all of the material he left behind, namely those postcards of 1916 to 1959. He died one month after he had written his final postcard.
Whether the cards began out of lack of money or not, I know he continued with them the rest of his life because he understood the value of being human. He understood the power and necessity of touching others with his life, with his heart. And he did so in many ways. In each of his Christmas postcards he reflected on the year ending, always with a special way of pulling something positive from it; always sharing words of encouragement – including all the years of the Great Depression.
Christmas 1920 WELL, HERE WE ARE AGAIN, AN NO EGG-NOGS! – This life is just one readjustment after another – War – Peace – N.C.L – Prohibition – and now maybe we’ll be able to get an ice cream soda, a ham sandwich and a stogie – all for two bits! But that’s getting off the subject – This is supposed to be Yuletide stuff, an’ I hope you’re thinking of all your blessings, an’ not your kicks. I hope you knock a big fat year outa’ 1921. It’ll be just what you make of it. You’ll reap what you sow. SO WRINKLE UP! The mummy has’nt had any fun for 5000 years. As the limies say, “CHEERIO”. All of which means that a near-bald, begoggled mind(?) wishes you the top of the world –
I hold no candle to my grandfather, neither one of them actually – or my own father. The world has seen few men as great as they were to me. But they leave me with some higher sense of self in which to strive for.
Reflecting Back on the Year at Christmas
This is a difficult post for me to write – much different than the Christmas post of last year. I want to emulate my grandfather’s heart and reflect back on 2020 and, like him, pull something positive from it, some word of encouragement. Erin and I have become a part of those who oppose the totalitarian tactics of governments run amok with a blood thirst for power and control. We as a people, THE people, of all nations now stand at the line that has been drawn in the sands of forever. What stands on the other side of that line is the possibility of losing our God given freedoms – forever.
It is in this reflection I am struggling to write something uplifting in a true spirit of Christmas, without ignoring out of respect the struggles we have been through, and the struggles ahead. Many have lost their livelihoods. Still others have lost everything they once had to make their life enjoyable. Still more have lost their lives, too many have taken their own. But in the end, somewhere down the line, I must believe, I KNOW, their lies hope for all of us. It is only a dark winter if we snuff out the Light that continues to burn in our hearts – placed their by Almighty God. Why? Because we are His people. We are of His image and life.
Christmas is More
Christmas is not only about Christianity – limited to Christian traditions, songs and images. It is not just a Christian event we celebrate. What we celebrate is birth – life. This is the time of the winter solstice, when the sun reaches its farthest point from us, resulting in the shortest day of the year and the longest night. The night is long because it is Holy. It is a Holy Night. This Holy Night prepares us for the awakening of the higher Self within us, it is the rekindling of the Christ Impulse within us. It leads us to believe in the power of life, in what may be called the highest ideal of life.
The Journey Begins at Christmas
With the dawn of the new day the sun begins its journey toward the summer solstice, when it will once again be nearest and shed its rays upon the Earth for the year’s longest day. Now is a time of birth, new birth. The Christ child is once again born in the hearts of those who have eyes to see and ears to hear. It is the rebirth of the Christ Impulse within the hearts of ALL people. This is not a time to celebrate only His birth, but a time to celebrate the promise of the Christ who humbled Himself and chose to take part in our humanity, to share in both our joys and our sorrows. It is a time to celebrate who we are as humans under the wings not only of the Angels who exist to help us, but to celebrate who we are as a united people from all walks of life – under the wing of one, the One, the All, the Loving Father.
Out of the Darkness
This is the time to join with one another and look into the heavens with hands and arms locked together, to focus as one upon that star that led the three Mystic Wise Men to the One who would not be an earthly king, but to the one who would become the Christ. It is the star that leads us home, back to who we really are – spiritual beings, beings of light in a dark world.
Though it may seem at times that God has left us, He has not; For He lives within each of us – His will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven. As He Loves from above, so too He Loves from below – here, in our very hearts.
The darkness that is over shadowing us right now has made a strategic error. It has united all people of all lands into a solidarity unheard of in all the history of mankind. This unity is a candelabra of millions that can light the Love of God within and cast out all fear. This great Light will dispel the darkness.
Last Thoughts
I felt it proper to share the last Christmas card my grandfather wrote. My grandmother had died during the year (1959). Still, my grandfather, in his waning months on this Earth, found a way to spread love and encouragement – even humor. If you would like to read some forgotten, but still some of the best IMHO, Christmas stories this season, I’ll share this little gem of a site with you as well.
In the words of Tiny Tim, “God bless us everyone!”
Christmas 1959
Erin and I wish you and yours a joyful time this Christmas, if only for a moment – but in the Light, maybe longer. Remember who you are, what you are. You are important to us – all of you.
Memento vivere
