Nothing stops moving. The tilt of the earth keeps pointing at the sun in a different position second by second and we think, “It’s already Christmas again?”
The monumental rocks which we gaze at in awe for their fixed sameness each time we visit the mountains, are also changing so slowly it is imperceptible. But they witness the grass, trees, and campers speed by in their life cycles like we watch the life of a gnat.
The legendary shepherds outside of Bethlehem looked at the same stars we watch, and the night sky the Wise Men studied as Mary and Joseph, exiled in Egypt, showed their little boy. They were forced to be aliens because the ruthless king Herod was trying to stop the changes and perpetuate himself as number one.
And all through the boy Jesus’ life people tried to stop the changes he revealed. They thought they had actually succeeded in establishing their eternal empire as people today still attempt while standing in the very ruins of past attempts.
Builders of the earthly empire lift massive blocks into their monuments, but trip over the stone which becomes the chief cornerstone of God’s creation (Psalm 118:22-29). They reject the building block of Life which supports the living stones forming the Body of God (I Peter 2:4-10). Such stones are we.
We are more than individuals celebrating the passing holidays in our exclusive ways.
The stones that Jesus said would cry out if no one else proclaimed the changes (Luke 19:37-40), these stones witness that …
nothing stops moving.
Jesus demonstrated that all things are traveling into the Mystery we cannot predict, explain, or control because it is more wonderful than we can bear.
So, may we not attempt to make Christmas define the Mystery. Let the heart of stone be transformed to the heart of flesh (Ezekiel 36:26). Let the Mystery of where we are headed humble us to walk on as living members of the New Creation slowly forming in the Womb.
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