Where Are You Christmas ~ Closing of the Year

Even the most beautiful of doors, once closed, is closed for a reason…even if for only a season

Happy Christmas Dear Reader,

I see this time of year as both a beginning and a closing. Even though it is not true, Advent is the beginning of the liturgical year for me. The Advent of Jesus is the beginning of what gets us to the crucifixion. I never ponder the cradle without the cross in mind.

As I spend my days searching for Christmas in moments this year, I find that I am pondering so many other beginnings and endings. Where I cannot find comfort for the things, I wish for but do not have, I find hope that it will not always be this way. I find hope in the focusing of my heart on redemption and reclamation. This hope battles the despair the for so many comes on the heels of sorrow and pain.

When we fail to learn from our misfortunes and count our blessings, we are in great danger of losing hope as well. In counting my blessings, I find that I have so much more than so many. This turns my heart toward gratitude instead of want. It pushes me to consider those in need instead of my own losses. It hardens my resolve to seek Christmas in the places that are real and lasting so that as I open a new year I do so with a heart that belongs to the one we follow.

In the twenty-three days remaining in the year, I must not waste any of them mourning the loss of things or situations beyond my control. Those doors, no matter how beautiful they may seem are closed forever. The past cannot be opened and it is not where I am to live.

What I must do is seek Christmas in every moment. I must look for the incarnate Son of God in every grain of time that falls through the pinch of the present. Living his desire for me to treat others with love and kindness every moment is how he is found.

This is also what rips my attention from what I do not have to what I possess in abundance. I need only follow the Son to find all that I need. It does not mean that I do not hurt or long for things. It does mean that there is peace in the pain when I see others in need and do what I can for them.

Where are you Christmas? You are in the heart that refuses to see this year as the horrible epithet so many are trying to make it. Christmas is seeing the blessings that are real even in dark days and on cold nights. Tell me about the blessings you have had this year Dear Reader. Your stories and questions are a part of my many blessings in the closing of the year.

Closing of the Year — Wendy and Lisa

If I cannot bring you comfort

Then at least I bring you hope

For nothing is more precious

Than the time we have, and so

We all must learn from small misfortunes

Count the blessings that are real

Let the Bells ring out for Christmas

At the closing of the year

Let the Bells Ring out for Christmas

At the closing of the year

Up on the knees of a Sergeant Major

Ride through the woods with the wind in your hair

Silver bells on a golden reindeer

As they race to the castle over there

If I cannot bring you comfort then at least I bring you hope

Now all the winter bells are ringing

Hear them echo through the snow

And the children’s’ voices singing

On the streets so far below

This is a time to be together

And the truth is somewhere here

Within our love of people

At the closing of the year

We’ll walk in the sun

With all of the faith

And all of the Patience

All of the way

With all of us right

And all of us saying

“No one an island”

We’ll fly in the arms of time

Walk in the waves, never fall

Don’t fall….

At the closing of the year…

At the closing of the year!

If I cannot bring you comfort, then at least I bring you hope

Then at least I bring you hope….

Wishing you joy in the journey,

Aramis Thorn

Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, “That is why every writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a home owner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store.”

(͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Originally published at aramisthorn.blogspot.com on December 8, 2018.