This morning I will do my best to answer as many of the questions the children and youth submitted to me a few weeks ago. I make no promises that there will be any wisdom offered, but I do promise to be honest. I plan to answer in order of age, so 4K first, high school last.
Emerson, the great sage of Concord, Massachusetts, advised readers to hitch their wagons to a star. In Emerson’s mind, humankind is, as the psalmist wrote, but a little lower than angels. We are a part of the nature of things; and nature, for Emerson, was God. Nature is God’s great web where majestic and impossible things like stars and life and death mingle with ants and grasshoppers and tree pollen
The bottom of the Christmas trees is bare; only the tree’s skirt and fallen needles remain. The New Year’s Day resolution has been made, and perhaps already broken. This season reminds us that it’s never too late to begin again.
This evening we gather to sing traditional Christmas hymns, shine our lights bright in the night, and be reminded of the beauty and gift inherent in each new life.
I have an abiding love for the song “Silent Night.” You know how it goes, “Silent night, holy night, all is calm, all is bright, ‘round yon virgin Mother and Child.” There is a tender sweetness that reminds me of watching a newborn sleep, swaddled in a bassinet. I like to imagine Mary and Joseph when I sing “Silent Night.”