Journal of Sacred Work

   Our three and a half-year-old grandson met his cousin the day after her birth, just two weeks ago. Since they live just ten minutes apart in Boston, they will come to know each other much better than most cousins.
   Little Sonia will not remember her first Christmas Eve. But if Miles is anything like his father, he will recall this night vividly.
   Everyone always says that Christmas is mostly for children. Perhaps this is because it is the celebration of a sacred birth. Perhaps, also, it is because young children are able to express such a pure and innocent belief. They trust completely the stories they are told. They do not doubt that Santa Claus will appear, magically, while they are asleep and will, tonight, bring them their heart’s desires…

   Christmas day may bring something different than expected. But, for small children living with loving families, Christmas Eve is as hopeful and magical a time as any night on the calendar. 
   Many adults I know spend lots of this evening recalling their own childhood Christmas or Hanukkah.  If they were lucky enough to live a happy childhood, you will be able to see it in the reverie in their eyes on this blessed night. Mixed with that reverie may be the fabric of longing – a longing for a time when trust and belief was undiluted by the harsher realities they may have experienced since.

   The luckiest people I know are those who have somehow rediscovered a belief in what I call Adult Magic. They have come to know that the richest "myths" are actually, in the most important way, true. The reality of the world may have delivered some bitter and difficult moments. And they have not only survived those moments but surpassed them. They have chosen to live their lives with a Love so rich that it enables them to reflect on their scars with gratitude instead of anger.
   And they know one more thing on this last day of Advent: The birth Christians celebrate on December 25 symbolized something of eternal and endless meaning far beyond this time. In an unlikely place, long ago, Love was born into the world in the form of a being who offers to us, two thousand years later, all we could ever ask or hope for. Jesus offers God’s gift for adults as well as for children still perhaps too young to understand why this evening is truly so special. And this gift may be unwrapped anew every day of the year.
   Happy Christmas Eve and Merry Christmas to caregivers everywhere!

-Erie Chapman