“Sages leave your contemplation;
Brighter visions beam afar.
(Angels from the Realms of Glory)
It is the afternoon of Boxing Day and these words have been echoing throughout my head since early morning. They remind me of the opening paragraph of this year’s Christmas letter.
“As I look back over the Christmases of 2020 & 2021, as well as ahead to Christmas of 2022 I can see changes occurring. Changes that reflect the availability of vaccines as well as a growing knowledge on our part to what we need to do to live safely with COVID-19. Christmas 2020 saw gifts being delivered outside the door and stuffed turkey from M&M’s for the Christmas feast. By Christmas 2021, we had progressed to opening gifts with the family in our apartment wearing masks, and Christmas dinner arrived plated from the festive table upstairs. Never had anything tasted so good! This year will be much the same with visits from family on both Christmas Day and Boxing Day. Because Brianna & Alex will have just spent 2 days with her family, we decided to once again eat our Christmas dinner downstairs. It has been slow, but it IS progress.”
I can see these words capturing the ‘brighter vision beam afar’. While the progress is slow and only incrementally brighter with each passing year, it IS brighter! The Carol doesn’t promise either a swift or immediate appearance of these ‘brighter visions’. But rather it encourages us that while they do exist, they will be in the future. It also urges us to to action, to work towards those ‘brighter visions’ while recognizing that sitting and thinking isn’t going to change anything. We need to leave that behind and do whatever is necessary to effect the desired result.
Such were my musings this Boxing Day….
Thank-you Lynn! I have been reading Music of Eternity by Robyn Wrigley-Carr and one line has carried me through the usual mad chaos of Advent and all the places to be with the food cooked or baked, carting presents hither and yon for distribution over the first few days of Christmas and enjoying all the fun and laughter they bring. The words are: ACTION FOLLOWS AWE....praise for each morning no matter how exhausting the day will be and thankfulness in the evening (if I could still stay awake). Peace came in pieces. as peace does, filling the empty spaces left of grandkids spreading their wings over different parts of the globe and loved ones and friends departed...even one husband with a MAN COLD which now has us isolated giving me some time fo reflect on those 'bright visions' which lay ahead....full circle... ACTION FOLLOWS AWE and AWE BEGATS ACTION. Ever Onward, Lynn!!
ReplyDeleteJudy Imrie