Article December 2, 1985 Issue

Christmas—here it comes again!

DIANE STAUNTON STAPLES

Some look forward to Christmas with pleasure, others with dread. During the years when I was raising my family, I always approached it with mixed emotions. I knew the season would include many warm and wonderful times, but also a great deal of excessive busyness and materialism. I deeply longed for a Christmas with more spiritual content, and I made sincere efforts to achieve this goal. One year I insisted that the family sit down together and read an account of Christ Jesus' birth from the Bible; another year we read selections regarding Christmas from Mrs. Eddy's writings. These were worthwhile activities, but they didn't really heal the negative feelings I had about the materialistic pressures of the season.

I have since realized that what I needed to do was to give the whole subject much deeper and more thoughtful prayer, listening for God's revelation rather than just trying to paper over my disturbed feelings with some humanly prescribed "spiritual" activities.

Christmas, centering on the birth of Jesus, celebrates the coming to human thought of Christ, Truth, in its fullest expression. Before Jesus' birth, much of God's goodness had been unfolded in the slowly awakening thought of mankind through the work and teachings of the patriarchs and prophets. The Old Testament is the history of this gradual spiritual progress of humanity. Yet Jesus' birth, life, teachings, healing works, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension brought a whole new level of light to the human scene. He clearly showed mankind the omnipotence of Spirit, God; he illustrated the spiritual nature of man and proved the powerlessness of matter to hold humanity in bondage.

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Christmas—here it comes again!

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