Enter the Mystery and Enchantment of Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve. When we're small, this is a day of mystery and enchantment. The Christ child is born and there's a mystery surrounding this redemptive event, even for a four year old. Santa Claus is flying through the skies, traveling the world to bring the joy of toys placed neatly under every child's Christmas Tree. There are elves, reindeer, sugar plum fairies, angels and nutcrackers; crackling fires, roasting turkeys, cookies and chocolates, blinking lights and gleaming ornaments; and if we're lucky, a starry night shining across glistening snow.

All of the mystery and enchantment of the season come from a child's inability to understand, but great willingness to believe-- anyway. As we grow older, and we learn to reason, we also begin to lose our ability to believe in that which we cannot explain. And we lose touch with the mystery and the enchantment of life. Christmas becomes just another day. The charm is lost and most of us don't know how to regain it. 

The mystery is still all around us. The mystery is God. God hasn't changed but we have. If we must be like little children to gain the Kingdom of Heaven, then there's no better time of the year to begin than now. On this Christmas Eve, let's allow our hearts to open up once again to our innate awareness of mystery in our lives. Let's be open to seeing the elves and angels that enchant our lives with the mystery of God's great, unexplainable presence. Dress-up in the colors of the season. Tip-toe to the Dance of the Snowflakes.

Let's loosen-up, unwind, dance and laugh. Say "Merry Christmas" with the heartfelt intensity of a five year old. Take all of our stodgy adultness and lock it in the hall closet for the rest of the season. Smile endlessly. Let's see the good within each and every person, the Christ-child within every child, including everyone's inner-child. And let's rejoice in the greatest gift-- the life-sustaining gift that is God's love. 

We can best rejoice in this gift by freely extending it, or passing it on, to everyone we encounter today. Allow the Spirit of God, the true Spirit of Christmas Present, to lift you up out of your ego-self into the Higher Realm of Mystery and Enchantment; the Mystery and Enchantment that can only be of God at this very mystical, joyous time of the year. Believe! Enter the mystery and enchantment that is the real you and allow your soul to shine!

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