Buechner: Unwrapping the Gift of Christmas

Buechner: Gift of Christmas

“O Lord, the gift of new life, new light, can be a gift truly only if we open ourselves to receive it. So this is our prayer, Lord: that thou wilt open our eyes to see thy glory in the coming again of light each day, open our ears to hear the angels’ hymn in the stirring within us of joy at the coming of the child, open our hearts to the transforming power of thy love as it comes to us through the love of all those who hold us most dear and have sacrificed most for us.

Be born among us that we may ourselves be born. Be born within us that by words and deeds of love we may bear the tidings of thy birth to the world that dies for lack of love. Amen” Frederick Buechner, “Come and See,” Secrets in the Dark A Life in Sermons, p. 55. HarperSanFrancisco 2006.

The gift of Christmas is the incarnation, a big word that means that God loves us so much that God came among us and became human. It was and is a gift. The gift of the incarnation also extends to us as it did to Mary. There is a part of God born in us and in every other person we will meet.

Advent is a time for us to prepare to honor the Creator by learning how to keep unwrapping that gift that we celebrate receiving during the Christmas season.

My granddaughter and I have a tradition of spending time together wrapping presents beginning in October. Wrapping gifts that soon will be unwrapped becomes a significant part of my year during this time.

As I meet with people in spiritual direction I cannot help but imagine how they are unwrapping that gift of the Christ Child in themselves. We as spiritual friends have the privilege of watching and waiting for the excitement of Christmas morning with them. When some realize that Christ is in them, they excitedly unwrap the present almost tearing the paper apart. Others unwrap the gift slowly and cautiously.

We as observers also receive a gift, for the gift of the Christ Child is too powerful to keep and must be shared. Spiritual friends help us unwrap the gift in ourselves as well. The gift that now shines so brightly in them assists us in unwrapping that gift of the Christ child in ourselves.

All of our experiences are different, but the gift is continually offered to all of us by the One whose name is Love.

Joanna joannaseibert.com

12/24/68 and Love

12/24/68 and love

“But the greatest of these is love.” 1 Corinthians 13:13

Earthrise 12/24/68 from Apollo 8

If you were alive on December 24, Christmas Eve, 1968, to see this picture from Apollo 8, do you remember what else you were doing? I remember much but also remember so little. My husband and I were interns at John Gaston City of Memphis Hospital working that night so we missed the traditional Christmas Eve services. Instead we went to the quieter Christmas Day services at St. Mary’s Cathedral that next morning. We were not married until the next year, but it was a special Christmas, the first holiday we were able to be together. I do not remember the patients I took care of that night or what presents we gave each other for Christmas. I do remember that our best friend, Charles Stallings, taught us how to make gold and red Christmas ornament balls that we hung on that first tree. We still have some of the large balls, and we try to tell our grandchildren, Zoe and Turner, about them as they traditionally help us hang them or occasionally have fun literally tossing the decorative balls on the upper limbs of our tree each year.

The most memorable part, however, of that first Christmas was that I was invited to meet Robert’s parents for Christmas dinner that night at their home. I don’t remember what we ate but, I do remember the red dress I wore. I was so nervous. I was damaged goods, and I feared that they would not be able to like or much less love me. I had been divorced, and Robert was in the process of being divorced. I remember how they accepted me with open arms and treated me as if I were a lovable person from the start. Their unconditional love and care never ended. I still feel their presence today even though they have been dead for some time.

The only way I can continue to return that love is pay it forward today to my children and their children and their spouse’s families. I remember when Elizabeth died that I would pray that if she would continue to watch over her grandchildren that I would care for her husband, Bob. I didn’t keep up my part of the bargain as well as she did. I could always have done more.

I know that love never dies. Bob and Elizabeth have taught me that. I still feel the unconditional love they showed to me in so many ways even today almost fifty years later. It is a presence. It is a feeling. It is knowledge. It is present in their only son who also knows much more about unconditional love than I do. I also see it in their three grandchildren whom they loved so dearly. I know love can change the world, one person, one family at a time. I have seen it.

Joanna joannaseibert.com

Buechner: Lord's Prayer, Advent IV

Buechner: Lord's Prayer (Advent IV)

“In the Episcopal order of worship, the priest sometimes introduces the Lord's Prayer with the words, ‘Now, as our Savior Christ hath taught us, we are bold to say..."’

Frederick Buechner, originally published in Whistling in the Dark, pp. 83 84, HarperSanFrancisco, 1988, from Frederick Buechner Center, Frederick Buechner Quote of the Day.

Buechner is reminding us of how bold we are to say the most recited Christian prayer. Of course, it is not really just a Christian prayer for it was written by a Jewish Rabbi telling other Jews how to pray.

My experience is that whenever I visit the sick or homebound or those in need, no matter what their mental state, they say or show some awareness to the Lord’s Prayer. I have seen those who seem unresponsive, twitch or move a hand or mouth a word or have a change in cardiac rhythm or even begin praying when we close our visit with this prayer. It is powerful and perhaps one of the last parts of our memory to leave us.

Buechner, however, is emphasizing the prayer’s boldness. If we could only find a little of what we are praying for in this prayer in our lives, the world would be dramatically changed, “turning our lives and our wills over to the care of God,” as those in 12-step programs pray daily. This is similar to what Luke quotes Mary as saying in her response to Gabriel, “let it be to me according to your word.” (Luke 1:38).

How bold that we ask for forgiveness as we are forgiven. If we have any hope of being forgiven, we must do the same.

How bold that we ask to be delivered from evil. I sometimes share that I recently was prepared to do something that my gut told me was not right, and some circumstances not of my own doing kept me from it. It was an answer to prayer. God was doing for me what I could not do for myself.

When spiritual friends ask how to find God, I have suggested for them to pray the Lord’s Prayer boldly as a part of a rule of life at designated times during the day that work best for them until we meet again. I will do the same, and we can compare notes