Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Christmas shift

We plan Christmas every year, and often either try to keep things the same, or deliberately different.  Life, however, always intrudes, or interferes, or perhaps embraces us, if we embrace it.  No matter how we think to package it, Christmas is different every year because we are different.  Of course this is no secret to Jesus.

Every year
There is a shift.
It comes with Christmas.
Even when we try to celebrate
Exactly the way we did
Last year:
We don*t.
We can*t.
Different things grab
Our attention.
Life intrudes or perhaps
Life embraces us.
We notice different things
Next to the manger.
There is a knowing look
In Baby Jesus* eye.
Life says
Pick me up and look into my eyes.
Feel my weight in your arms.
Do you notice how things are different
This year?

Christmas shifts things
Even when we try to keep them
The same.
In the manger Jesus winks.
What a preposterous thing,
The image of Jesus winking.
There must be something
He knows
That we don*t,
Even as a baby
Lying in the straw.
We are lifted even as we lift Him.
Life*s embrace.
Jesus winks.

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