Bright bright bright...

Nobody can tell me there isn't a magic about Christmastime. There's something about the entire atmosphere of December that is ethereal, almost - it's by turns cold and white and silently peaceful, then glittering and wild, then warm and gold and flickering, cinnamony, feel-good and happy.

This holiday season I've been puzzling, and puzzling, and puzzling some more, like the fabled Grinch, about why Christmas does what it does to me -- I am a little kinder, a little more giving, a little more willing to show my love during this time of year. My heart grows three sizes. And I've come to understand, like the Grinch before me, that it has nothing to do with packages, boxes or bags. I love Christmas because my soul loves Christmas.

Because this time of year is the time we think about two thousand years ago, when a baby was born to a humble couple in a stable and laid in a manger. We close our eyes and it's almost like we can see an angel that came to shepherds in their fields - an ancient song, coming to us from a hillside suddenly flooded with light from heaven. It's the one time of year, I think, where we can nearly hear the angels singing along with us.

It's a time where we think about wise men, who traveled with gifts for a child they had never met, but knew well in their hearts. It is a time we think of a mother who learned the truth for herself, about herself, and pondered those things in her heart. We learn lessons of trust, forgiveness, humility and loyalty from a carpenter who, while facing the most bewildering and potentially hurtful and humiliating circumstances, was told to fear not - and so he did not fear.

The Christmas story is about things changed. It's a season of miracles - for a miracle is the event of something becoming something it was not and could not be but for God. It is about angels becoming messengers, shepherds becoming symbols, wise kings becoming subjects, a virgin becoming a mother, and unmistakably, a world becoming new, and a baby becoming the Savior.

How could my soul not love to remember this? How could I, who need so much to be changed into something I am not, be less than enamored by this Christmas season of things changed from what they are to what they could never be but for God?

Today I am full of gratitude that the Christmas story, as magic as it is, is also true; that God is with us in Immanuel His Son, and that because of a baby in a manger, humankind could be saved from sin. I am grateful that Christ has "taught us to love one another; His law is love, and His gospel is peace. Chains shall He break, for the slave is our brother, and in His name, all oppression shall cease." I am grateful that He "with His blood mankind hath bought". I am grateful that the tidings of Christmas are "peace on earth, goodwill to men" - which, Christian or otherwise, sounds like exactly what we need. I am grateful to know He will come again.

My final thought comes from the song, "Angels, From the Realms of Glory." It contains a charge, and a prophecy, that I hope to keep in mind throughout Christmas and the rest of the year.

"Though an infant, now we view Him,
He shall fill His Father's throne,
Gather all the nations to Him:
Every knee shall then bow down."

I cannot wait for this day.