The Snowflake

Tonight I was sitting in the living room examining the Christmas tree. We have a lot of lights and ornaments. As many a variety of ornaments, I think, as a tree can hold. Our tree has hand made ornaments, fine glass ornaments, cheesy toy ornaments and even a spaceship or two (okay ten).

But, the ornament that caught my eye was a cheap plastic snowflake covered in glitter. There are many just like it on the tree. I am sure that many years ago my mom bought them in a pack of 10 or 20 for less than a buck.

As I sat looking at this ornament I was taken back to a simpler time, at least for me it was simpler. It was back when I was in grade school and I took one of those ornaments to school and taped it to my desk. I wanted to decorate my desk for Christmas and that ornament was one I could take without mom getting worried about it getting lost or broken.

For me it was a time before holiday performances and concerts to attend. Before the family was so busy that planning the Christmas gathering was an act of congress. And maybe I was shielded from it, but before saying “Merry Christmas” was something that you had to be concerned about offending someone.

I have been greatly bothered this year by how the “magic” of Christmas seems to have disappeared. I know that I have changed and my life has gotten more complicated. I have things in my life now that I have never had before. There are things I thank God for everyday and things that I ask God to help change everyday.

I wonder if I have changed so much that I no longer see the “magic” of Christmas as I saw as a child. I wonder if in all my studies, growing up and growing more cynical with life has changed me to the point that I am no longer able to experience Christmas as I did as a child.

As I was writing this I was reminded again of one of the most amazing newspaper columns ever written. Veteran newsman Francis Pharcellus Church wrote it for the September 21, 1897 edition of New York’s Sun publication. It has become known around the world as “Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.” I would encourage you to read the whole column, but I want to quote the part that means the most to me:

“Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world. You may tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, VIRGINIA, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.”

Christmas is all about the unseeable. Science tells us that each individual snowflake is different, but we cannot see that with the naked eye. God created each of us as individuals different from each other, just as He created each individual snowflake different from another.

I know that sometimes I have gotten so busy that I forget to notice the beauty of God’s creation. There is a great diversity that exists in all created things. But sometimes because of life it becomes unseeable. I forget why we do all the things we do at this time of year.

I wonder if maybe the “magic” of Christmas is lost on me because I have forgotten it. Maybe the “magic” of Christmas is nothing external but it is an internal unseeable thing. That maybe the most important thing about Christmas is not all the gifts, parties, concerts, church services and whatever else we find to cram into a few short weeks in December.

The most important thing about Christmas is remembering why we do all the crazy stuff. That in some far away land, a long time ago a baby was born. He was born in the most humble of circumstances and yet angels and a bright shining star announced His birth.

The heart of Christmas is that the most lowly and unlikely of places can become a holy space, that the most unlikely birth can change the world. That God who takes so much care to make no two snowflakes the same took time to save the world.