Sadness and Smiles

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Sadness and Smiles

Christmas season brings a spiritual subtlety of kindness and giving, minds somehow thawing from a year of national and international turmoil, a bleakness that the heart and soul rejects for this magical time when most of us honor the birthday of Jesus…the Man, the Deity, who lived among us and brought Faith and Hope to a world searching for meaning and promise to their lives.

Faith requires the union of heart, mind, and soul. Faith of course is not tactile and must be somehow embraced by a conversion of that union. What I find most remarkable at this time of year are the love and warmth on the faces of people, their generosity and kindness. It is as though a mysterious presence finds its way into our bodies and spreads a Joy we might find difficult to explain and understand… At least, that is the way the season affects me, like the gentle hand of Jesus Christ touching me, reminding me of my boyhood baptism, reminding me that my Faith, tenuous at times in life, is still very much a part of the Appalachian uncertainty in youth when I strongly felt the visceral currents running through me during ‘Altar Call’ at church… Yet, my Faith is with me, again, sometimes tenuous, but with me.

There are friends who call themselves Atheists who superfluously have the right to hold their beliefs. They can intelligently give their reasons for their Atheism. For me, it is my feeling that there is a certain arrogance to deny the existence of a supreme Deity. There are too many wonders about the earth and its connection to the Universe. It is difficult for me to conceive of a ‘Big Bang’ creating such meticulous preciseness to birth cycles and other natural designs.

But I wander!

The season is upon us, and I feel that miraculous, singular settling within me the spirit of Christmas. I know that there are others who feel this quintessence… It’s my hope the world is feeling it!