Christmas Magic

 

Last night I laid down on the floor to look up through the branches of the Christmas tree. As a young child it was quite the magical thing to do.

Tonight? Nah. It was pretty, but not magical. We have a beautiful, pre-lit tree with tiny colorful lights, but not the large bright bulbs of yesteryear.

Eons ago, in my pretty little head, perhaps I longed to believe for magical suspension of existence in my fear shrouded little life, a longing for peace. Maybe in a home of six rambunctious children I sought a magical quiet. Maybe I pondered the awe of growing up splashed all over the reality of childhood.

I probably made up my own magical stories – as I’ve continued to do for decades since.

Whatever thoughts danced through my mind were thoughts that left me inspired and smiling.

The tantalizing starlight bursts from a million colorful Christmas bulbs and the grin from the jolly stuffed Santa perched up in the branches of a pine tree whose scent I’ll never forget made an indelible memory, kept safe in the recesses of my mind. It awakens every Christmas season.

The memory is there, but the magic is gone. Replaced by adulthood with its many responsibilities, magic seems a distant possibility.

Yet, I read of my King – Who calls the things that are not as thought they are! (Romans 4:17 – “…in the presence of the God, in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.” ESV – or as the good ol’ King James phrases it: “…God, who quickens the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were.”)

I also read that the unseen is greater than what I can see with my eyes. (2 Corinthians 4:18 – “…the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.”)

This speaks to me of wonder more magnificent than magic.

1 Corinthians 13:12 tells us, “For now we see through a glass, darkly’ but then face to face: now I know in part; but I then shall I know even as also I am known.”

Just as a child (and most adults) don’t understand magic and how magic tricks are performed, we who are made righteous by the sacrifice of Jesus don’t yet understand the things of God like we will when we stand before Him face to face.

As a child, I gazed up into a magical looking Christmas tree.

Now, as a Child of God – I gaze into His Word and behold the wonder of the Christ behind our Christmas celebrations. As I read His Word, I grow to know Him better, but the best is yet to come!

“But as it is written, Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for them that love Him.” 1 Corinthians 2:9