CHRISTMAS IS

Christmas is a collision of images, thoughts and emotions. When these word pictures bump into each other, they form a kaleidoscope of the holidays. It's as though we're looking through a colorful lens at patterns and prisms that dazzle the eye and stir up memories. Each element is keenly felt, yet the combination is a heady mixture of joy and pain, fulfillment and need. Please indulge me as I try to capture sound, color and light in a Christmas collage.

Christmas is the cry of a baby, changing the world forever. It's the kiss of peppermint, the comfort of hot cocoa, a moveable feast.

Christmas is the peal of a bell, a tangle of lights, a shiver of hope, a right jolly old elf. 

It's an awkward hello and a tearful goodbye. It's an empty chair, an aching heart.

Christmas is a velvet dress, a sticky giggle, a weary soldier, a solitary meal.

It's a whisper of snow, a hint of pine, a toothless grin, a festive package.

It's a hope deferred, a fragile truce. It's a living crèche, a dying wish, a watchful prayer.

Christmas is a drink from the cup of Forgiveness -- even when the dregs are bitter.

It's the bray of a donkey, the blending of carolers, a crackling fire. And, steady in the East, one bright star presides over all our distress and delight.

Christmas is, forevermore, Emmanuel, God with us.