The Franciscan Friar was a friend of a friend. He traveled by foot from Canada to St. Louis, Missouri to enter the monastery. At one point he stopped short when he reached the top of a mountain, mesmerized by the sight of a long, fertile valley lush with wildflowers of every imaginable color. After many minutes, he thought to himself, “What a waste of beauty. For I am the only one to set my eyes upon this glory.” But immediately his thoughts turned. “God sees this. It belongs to Him. He made the earth and all that is in it not merely for us but also for His own delight.”
At that moment God was also the observer of the beauty He created. There is never a moment when beauty is not being appreciated by Him, if not us.
If we can only see the glitter and lights and pretty packages because we have not prepared our hearts, we may find ourselves asking, “Is that all there is?” Perhaps we haven’t seen Christmas for what it really is. What a waste.
Thankfully, Christmas celebrations are never wasted. There is always One who observes our nativity scenes and plays, our trees decorated with the Star that points the way, and enters the worship at His table regardless of what we believe.
And that One also continually calls us to communion with Him. And He calls us to enter into Christmas joy as we place His only begotten Son in the manger.
If we feel a void on Christmas night, it’s never too late to say, “Come into my heart, Lord Jesus, there is room in my heart for you.” He will transform our hearts and together with God, we can observe and enter into the greatest miracle of all time. Then with our Creator, and our hearts full of peace, we will sing, “Merry Christmas!”
P.S. If it seems you have no need of a Redeemer, for any one of myriad reasons, invite Him anyway – with at least some sincerity in the effort – and see what happens.
Merry Christmas with LOVE!
(At this writing, we were still in the Season of Advent – the time to prepare, Not just our homes, our gifts, our menus. It is the time we take to prepare our hearts to receive once more Love that was born on that first Christmas Day.)
Midnight Mass, Our Lady of Hope at At Our Lady of Sorrows, KCMO
Christmas Morning, St. Thomas More Church, KCMO