A Christmas Thought, 2,018 years later

In the the morning light of my prayer-room I gaze upon the image of the Christ-child cheek to cheek with his mother. When suddenly my mind jumps to the words of Jesus when He said (Jn15:5,) “...those who abide in Me and I in them...” ‘If I abide in Him,’ I thought, ‘then I am as much in this infant at His mother’s cheek as I am with Him on the torturous Cross.’

Time is not really linear traveling from the creation of sun and moon into infinity like the longest golden thread. Yesterday, today, and tomorrow collapse into a oneness of Time. All that will be “IS”. All that was “IS”. ISness is time itself. In the Minds of the Maker, and the most brilliant physicists, time is something very different than what it is for us who count it by seconds. That golden thread continuously dissolves into nonexistence. This is how we can be in Christ from inside the womb until this very minute even when He is invisible! We are always united in NOW time. 

Back to the touching cheeks. In these Christmas days we who celebrate would do well to take a few of these fleeting moments to imagine being in the neonatal fast-beating heart of Jesus curled up in the womb of His humble young mother; our Mother too!

Soon we will travel through the birth canal with Him, from the dark warm womb into the dark cold world. Our mission, like His, will be to overpower this cold darkness with the light of love. Like Jesus, let’s love even those who offend us. Turn the other cheek and bless. Heal, even at the wrong time. Forgive. Relate to all men equally regardless of gender, status, or ethnicity. Walk on water.

But for now, on Christmas Day, be a baby, feel the love. Receive the gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Ignore the cold, smelly manger.

And tomorrow, follow His commands like bread crumbs to heaven, the real place of peace and harmony because love lives there, and love never ever dies, it is the destination of time.

Merry  Christmas.

Evangeline

Rise and Shine

Every August I feel like a stretched rubber band that snaps back from Transfiguration amazement to Mary-land of my mind. In the evenings me and my aspiring immortal friends get together and sing her to sleep, her own special night’s sleep that wakes her up near her Son again. I love to imagine Elijah hopping in his chariot yoked to magical white horses and flying up to God, only mother Mary is in there with him too.

No cancerous pain to battle, no stinky cold hospital room, no box for the cold stiff shell to be stored in or no hopeless fire to ashify! I know that a whole big lot of people think it’s a good idea to be burned after they leave their bodies, but I wonder if that isn’t like saying either, “I don’t believe the part where our bones will rise from their graves and God will dress them with new flesh.” Or, they think that God can put the ashes together just as well.

Nope, I don’t dare expect God to assemble a puzzle of ashes and I wish those I love the most wouldn’t either. What if expecting that is like when Satan suggested to Jesus that He fling himself from the mountain because God could catch Him. He said that He wouldn’t put God to the test. Well, I wish we aspiring immortals wouldn’t put God to that test either. I ask God for a whole lot of things that He doesn’t want to do, and He doesn’t do them. I sure don’t want to find out in the end that He doesn’t want to look for such tiny pieces of me during the most intense moments in all of history since the beginning of the world.

The best way to avoid the problem of burning or burial is to just disappear altogether like Elijah and Mary did. Mary and Elijah never had to leave their bodies at all. They just ascended when God said they were finished here, like it was time to go to Church...forever.

Maybe you and I will ascend too, like Mary and Elijah did. Of course I mean when the aspiring immortals, maybe millions of us, will meet Jesus in the sky on the last day. The most exciting thing to think about is that it can happen next week. While everyone is reading the newsy political blogs and getting all upset about this or that we are quietly packing the bags of our hearts to make sure that we love enough, forgive enough, and we are obedient enough to give our bodies the kind of lift that Mary had.

”Fret not, neither let your heart be troubled” is another way of saying, lighten up to make your hearts like helium balloons, it will make it easier to fly.

Happy Birthday Alayne.