Miracle!

Kris Kringle looks earnestly into the doubting, young woman's face and says in an almost pleadingly, "If you can't accept anything on faith...you are doomed to a life dominated by doubt." That truth resonated with me, so that I interrupted my watching of Miracle of 34th Street, got up and scribbled it down. This is truly one of the richest seasons of the year in faith and doubt.

I roll to my side, my feet "plunk" down in faith that the floor will once again catch me. I seize a piece of paper then scramble to the kitchen in faith that I will find a pen returned to the junk drawer beside the stove. Every person exercises faith. Without it you can't even move!

Commercials pan across the TV screen of businesses still doubting they will be in the "black" this Christmas season in an abysmal economy. Some acknowledge the reason for the season, "Christmas," while others pander for Christmas cash in cognito with little to ease their doubt but faith in consumerism and advertising...hoping for a miracle. Charlie Brown cries out for someone to explain to him what Christmas is all about in the empty world of lights and packages. Friends on their posts can be found saying that they're just not "feeling it" this year...doomed to doubt the joy of the Christmas. And yet, it matters not.

Christmas comes, as the Grinch notes, without ribbons, boxes, or bags. Christmas comes whether I feel it, or not. Christmas comes whether we're in the red or in the black. Christmas will continue to come whether I live by faith, or dominated by doubt. Christmas cannot be found as Scrooge's nephew observes "apart from the veneration due its sacred name and origin." Ready or not the Christ comes as a God's gift to us. The longer I live the more I surrender to the miracle of Christmas! God bless it!