Wake up, wake up, it's Christmas morning . . .

When I was a child, my brother and I shared a bedroom directly across the hall from the living room, where gloriously stood the Christmas tree, a cedar we harvested from what seemed like the deep forest behind our house.  The living room contained a stocking adorned fireplace , that portal through which Santa Claus entered our home. We never had a fire in that fireplace when I was young, even though we almost always had one in the fireplace in the den. For years I assumed that was simply to make things easier for Santa, keeping him and the stockings away  from the heat of the flaming logs and glowing coals and the soot-lined brick.   He never chose the den side of the chimney to come down, just the living room.. So I guess it worked.

Those were the best Christmases ever, when my siblings and I were all still very young.  Like all families, we had traditions.  For us, the tradition was to get up before the sun on Christmas morning to see what St. Nick had brought us.  It seemed impossible to go to sleep on Christmas Eve.  The anticipation produced far too much adrenalin.  And we weren't exactly a low energy group, even on normal days. But this was Christmas Eve. However, the threat that Santa Claus would not come until we were asleep worked well.

But waking up was not easy either, even on Christmas morning, until the  fog of sleep cleared and I realized that my brother or sisters were up and moving around.  We would gather at the door of the living room, which was still inky dark.  The anticipation was unbearable. Quickly, someone would turn on the lights. And in that light we could see what gifts Christmas had brought for us.

It was always great.

A song that has been part of my Christmas for several years has a chorus that opens with the words:

"Wake up, wake up, it's Christmas morning . . ."

It always evokes in my heart that joy that was created in my childhood, as I remember the remarkable gifts revealed in the light of Christmas morning.

It's difficult to remember why we celebrate Christmas in all the busy-ness, the hustle and bustle.  I have been reading the gospel passages that relate the birth of Jesus during advent, just to try to get some perspective.  I am not a Bible scholar, and I realize that what I am about to do, taking part of a verse completely out of context,  is not  a good idea, but, it is what happened, so, that's just the way it is. I never went to seminary.

I suddenly noticed a part of Matthew, Chapter 1, that I never noticed before.  This happens to me often. I think someone must slip in at night and add stuff to my Bible. Anyway, the chapter deals in part with Joseph and Mary, their engagement, and her awkwardly timed, hard to explain holy pregnancy. Thankfully, an angel appeared to Joseph in a dream and explained the whole thing to him.  Verse 24 begins,

"When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord commanded him . . ."

 In another gospel, the Book of John, there is no story of Jesus birth.  John tells us about  Jesus coming into the world as the Word.  And light.. In Chapter 1, verses four and five, John says:

 " In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

So that is what is on my mind this Christmas season.  A brilliant pinpoint of perfect light  first appeared in a manger in Bethlehem, and spreads like the flames from the candles at the Christmas eve service, wick to wick, heart to heart, revealing all that cannot be seen in the darkness.

But first, we must wake up.

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