Born a few days after Christmas in 1829, Scottish poet Alexander Smith suggested, “Christmas is the day that holds all time together.”
Alexander’s words can be understood in both a physical and metaphysical sense: unspiritual and deep seeing spiritual context.
As we approach Christmas 2020 I find this to be more relevant this Christmas than any Christmas I have ever commemorated. In fact, I come to this Christmas endeavoring to redeem time in an increasingly uncertain world.
In a life lived nearly three-quarters of a century; I have never been isolated from those I love on Christmas Day. In a year that has deviated from all norms, my heart longs for familiarity, closeness; especially with life itself so fragile. Is it no wonder we seek refuge in the sweet memories of past Christmases that were not overshadowed by circumstances and the protracted events of a day and age in which, it would appear, we have increasingly been exhausted with the barren pursuits of what one might define as darkness.
Wordsmith Alexander, who left this world prematurely at age thirty-seven, due to typhoid fever, believed, “A man’s real possession is his memory. In nothing else is he rich, in nothing else is he poor.”
I have said it before, but it bears repeating, “It is often in remembering that we find our salvation.”
The Divine Infant, whose advent we celebrate at Christmas, would legitimize these words some thirty years later when he gathered those closest to him during their last supper together. “Do this in remembrance of me …” and by so doing, discover salvation.
“It is easy, perhaps even normal, to idealize the past and try to return to it in our memories,” writes Dennis Clausen Ph.D., professor of American literature and screenwriting at the University of San Diego. “Those memories create a safer place, one less chaotic and uncertain than the ‘modern world’ every generation has to navigate its way through into an uncertain future.”
From my youth, Christmas has always been a time when a deeply felt sense of family was interwoven into the fabric of my life. In reminiscing about my memories of Christmases past, I come to realize they played a major role in shaping my adult perspectives on life and what I have chosen to hold dear.
As I page through aging photograph albums and stacks of old Christmas cards, I step back into a world I remember with fondness. I am flooded with nostalgic memories of an earlier time and place, of endearing faces and voices that made living a beautiful existence.
I have grown to appreciate a less cluttered life–the “stuff” that gets in the way of meaningful endeavors. And along the way, I have learned not to confuse amusement with meaning, to pay homage to the immeasurable treasures found in goodness.
Sheldon Vanauken, a former professor at Lynchburg College, in his 1977 Award-Winning Bestseller titled, A Severe Mercy, “an almost unbearably powerful story of hope and sorrow,” writes, “Goodness and love are as real as their terrible opposites, and, in truth, far more real . . . anyone who does not understand this, be he writer or sage, is a man flawed in wisdom.
“It is, I think, that we are all so alone in what lies deepest in our souls, so unable to find the words and perhaps the courage to speak with unlocked hearts, that we do not know at all that it is the same with others,” reflects Vanauken.
English Bible scholar and clergyman, John Bertram Phillips, noted for his version of The New Testament in Modern English, paraphrased the Apostle Paul’s encouragement to those living in the Mediterranean’s main commercial center, with these words, “Live life, then, with a due sense of responsibility, not as men who do not know the meaning and purpose of life but as those who do. Make the best use of your time, despite all the difficulties of these days. Don’t be vague but firmly grasp what you know to be the will of God.”
…“the will of God,” defined by the Apostle John’s familiar words:
“For God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that every one who believes in him shall not be lost, but should have eternal life. You must understand that God has not sent his Son into the world to pass sentence upon it, but to save it—through him.”
The world had turned over in one exclamatory moment in time …
Former Cook County Commissioner Garry Gamble is writing this ongoing column about the various ways government works, as well as other topics. At times the column is editorial in nature.
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