Maggie's Farm

We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.

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Sunday, December 8. 2013

Advent and baby fir trees

The time from the start of Advent to Christmas is like a short spiritual pregnancy.


What's the miracle of Christmas? That Christ can be born in all of us, anywhere, any time, at any season, to make us fully human and complete by linking the divine spark in our pagan, fallen souls to the holy.


Is it a shame, or a blessing, that we have to really need Him before we will put our precious selves aside, just a bit, to let Him into our lives?


While my Puritan ancestors would never celebrate the "Roman" (eg "Anti-Christ") feast of Christmas, I find it to be an emotional reminder of that miracle which exists in the present, not the past. And the totally pagan, Germanic tree is a perfect metaphor for transformation - ordinary baby firs, like all of us (miracle enough right there), with the potential to be transformed by light and truth and beauty and brotherly love.


At Maggie's Farm HQ, this transformation, from ordinary fir tree to Holy Spirit-illuminated tree, is what we pray for. (Hold the tinsel, please.) It's not decor, it's a symbol of our potential.






Posted by Bird Dog in Our Essays, Religion at 13:24 | Comments (4) | Trackbacks (0)

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how perfectly, perfectly beautiful!
#1 ilona (Link) on 2006-12-12 15:40 (Reply)
Nice thought. I'll print this out and post it nearby to remember year-round.
#2 fiftyville on 2013-12-08 13:56 (Reply)
Amen, brother.
#3 Jim on 2013-12-08 15:19 (Reply)
Ok. In tears. So fundamentally true & beautifully written.
#4 Gwynne on 2013-12-09 09:29 (Reply)

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