What a sacred moment we now approach in the mythos of our Christian story. For the sweet, innocent baby that lies in the manger is you. Gaze upon that child. Notice that even the animals draw near in wonder. See the loving mother gazing at you with the fullness of a wondrous love. See the man who out of sheer love for you has faced many challenges to bring you here and to gather coals from the fire of creation to keep you warm.
“But I am too old to become a child again,” you may protest. But it is never too late. For an Inner Teacher lives within you that will walk with you on the road to the peace that passes all understanding. Along that road your first and perhaps most important task will be unlearning. For fear has taught you that you are alone in the world, and that you will die, and that enemies of all sorts can threaten your existence. All of this must be unlearned. All of this is a manifestation of your small self. (Klotz)
Please be patient with yourself. You would not expect a baby to recognize all of the illusions that this world has to offer. Unless you have had some extraordinary spiritual teachers in this life, your true identity in God seems most unreachable. Your “little self” seeks to enhance itself by external approval, external possessions and external “love.” The Self That God created needs nothing. It is forever complete, safe, loved and loving. It seeks to share rather than to get, to extend rather than project. It has no needs and desires to join with others out of their mutual awareness of abundance. (ACIM)
You are the child in the manger. The tyrants of the world want you to go away. The tyrant within us fears the birth of another, more spiritual part of our being, one that would connect us to our Divine Self. The tyrants within us are a bundle of habits that have worked for us. If we are lucky, those old habits will, at some point in our lives, begin to taste like ashes in our mouths. It may take a trip through the dark woods of depression for us to see the limitations of our old ways. Love beckons. A slow-burning yet unexpressed love bursts into flame when we come to believe that the Christ-consciousness is meant for us, too.
Miracles appear when we step away from the small self and discover that it is in giving that we receive. And perhaps the most important gift we can give is forgiveness. “Forgiveness is the means by which we will remember (who we are). Through forgiveness the thinking of the world is reversed. The forgiven world becomes the gate of Heaven, because by its mercy we can at last forgive ourselves. Holding no one prisoner to guilt, we become free. Acknowledging Christ in all our brothers, we recognize His Presence in ourselves. (ACIM)
I’d like to walk this road with you. And I offer to you a sweet lesson taught to me this Christmas season. Grievances block miracles. Grievances block miracles, and you are entitled to miracles. Grievances keep us locked in the world we have made. We have been promised full release from the world we made. We have been assured, through the child born this night, that the Kingdom of God is within us, and can never be lost. Tonight, in quiet love and silence and candlelight, we celebrate these miracles.
Merry Christmas
Peace and good will on Earth!
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