Growing Christmas

Photo by Lee Lindsey McKinney

If growing-up required you

to shrink from all mystery,

to avoid expectation,

to deny and hide all vulnerability,

jettisoning these child-like qualities

for a strong, planned, and predictable life,

Christmas invites you,

every year, to reclaim its gift.

You will not likely anticipate

the same things you did in your youth,

but you can learn how to wait,

and hope for the arrival

of gift that surpasses imagination.

Christmas invites you

to keep your inner child,

but trade-in your youthful longings

for much larger ones.

When toys and transportation

are no longer at the top of your list,

you have a chance to dream

more amazing gifts.

Hope isn't wishful thinking,

but the realization that the universe

is ordered to point toward a promise

that cannot be denied or derailed.

Peace on earth is not a theory

or an in-breaking for the distant future,

but a courageous act and kind word

chosen each day and moment.

Joy is a gift unwrapped daily,

by those who cease

their own personal pursuit

of happiness long enough

to recognize what’s been

underneath the tree all along.

Love is the freely-offered overflow

of those who've traded-in earning

for unconditional grace that shows up

in spite of all our fear and hiding.

Find the child in you so that

you may find the child whose gift

gives us all a chance to be

broken Christs to our hungry world.

© 2013 Todd Jenkins