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My Christmas Fast

I was surprised to be greeted with a heavy mist, as I slid the patio door shut.  I better go get my raincoat, before Jasmine and I would begin our morning walk.  The sky was gray and cloudy, with still a bit of a chill. But the morning was ours as everything around us fell silent.  As we started out, I noticed that even our front yard tree was shedding yellowish leaves.  There were trees along our usual route that were like brilliant bunches of gold, others were deeply orange and red as rubies.  Walking through the leaves, I noticed that not one of them was identical to the other.  Like snowflakes, each one was distinct in pattern, color and hue.  Like grains of sand, they were much too numerous to begin to count. Wow, how awesome the wonder of trees!  

As we walked on, I pondered the process of the changing leaves.  It would seem that each one knew when to turn on their color as they blended in concert with one another, along the streets.  I'm sure it has been the cold nights and mornings that have instigated the transformation, but surprisingly there are some stoic trees that maintain their constant green. How do they know?  Why the change with some, and others remain the same?       

In my year of being "62 and new," I am going through the Christmas season without my usual plans.  I have not dug out my decorations or written my Christmas letter and card.  But I am doing some baking and will be getting together with friends.  And yes, I do enjoy driving through the neighborhood at night and seeing Christmas lights, and I don't mind a Christmas tune or carol. But there is something within me that calls for less.  Less hustle and bustle, less stuff, less distraction, less money, less external means to celebrate, and more time to relish what's around me, right before me. 

Perhaps it is my Christmas fast.  I can't say that I have truly fasted as some I know make a regular practice of it.  But I think I am realizing that God has already done decorations for this season.  He has graced his world with a beauty that can't be captured by a photo or a painting.  What artist could truly paint each and every leaf completely different a thousand times over? Perhaps the color change around us is a call to draw near to the Creator who designed these trees so unique.  When I look at the fallen leaves, I am reminded of a Savior with such great love for us, One who still infinitely cares for us and his world.  He invites us to share in this beauty with Him.  Nature is always an open invitation.  

I am looking up into the jeweled boughs and limbs.  They just seem to shout "Glory to God in the highest!"  Yes, Emmanuel is God with us, always present and inviting us to be with Him.  He graces his world with unparalleled beauty and He's given us a body, a mind and spirit to behold it.  And so I find myself with joy like the Shepherds who after finding the infant Jesus, "went back glorifying and praising God for all that they had heard and seen," (Luke 2:20).

    

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