Thoughts on Christmas Cards

Thoughts on Christmas cards: I got out the Christmas card stuff this week, and came across a bundle of cards and letters from last year. I sat down and began to read . . .
There were greeting cards, most of them religious, I noticed, though such cards are harder and harder to find in the stores any more. Many included photos, not of prized possessions, but of beloved families, precious children, and grandchildren. People had included snapshots of travel with dear friends, and portraits of the animals that fill the little corners of their lives with devotion. Through their eyes, I saw the world and all its wonders.

The end of a year is a time of summing up. Sure, there have been hardships and setbacks, but when each of us sits down to write an account of the past year, what naturally comes to mind most vividly is what, really who, we love.

As I read those cards and letters, when I read about what people loved, I thought about spiritual things, lives well lived. I thought, in a fresh way, that this is a season when we sense how the divine, the transcendent, flows through the earthly. We want to tell each other about the goodness and beauty and love that have quietly slipped into our days and given them meaning. We want to talk about how the Word becomes flesh.