Second-Chance Christmas

All around me the world has already moved onto the next thing.  This was abundantly evidenced by the forest of dead Christmas trees lining up our street for this morning’s yard waste pick up.  

Even in our own household, some of us begun to feel a bit crowded out, a little suffocated by Christmas season. As a result, by the evening of January 1 all the stuff symbolizing the birth of Christ, vague and syncretistic as their symbolism may be, was stripped down and stuffed up into the attic.

I guess, there is a first for everything!

It’s the New Year, the new resolutions, the fresh start.  The clean slate.  Empty space!

And then, yesterday, I hit me.  

It’s Christmas Eve! Again! 

Instantly I am transported into a time warp, to join half of the Christian world who celebrate on this day the birth of the One and only true peace-giver on earth.

Peace on Earth. Christ is born. 

Solid, penetrating peace into my own anxious heart.

Yes! He is born indeed.

Mir Bozji. Hristos se rodi. Vaistinu se rodi.

I feel ridiculously joyful and radically subversive, crying as I chop onion after onion for prebranac. I know half of my brothers and sisters all around the world are shedding tears with me. The way life and onions make us weep. Slice after slice, following the stinging pattern of the traditional Christmas Eve meal.

Fish. Boiled potato salad. Baked lima beans.  Red wine.

The simplicity of the meal we eat is both healing and convicting.

I know I make life more complicated than it needs to be. 

Today, I feel like I was given a second chance at the real behind much of my Christmas.

I feel blessed by my heritage that reminds me to re-remember even when the world around me seems to have already forgotten. 

The simple ‘poor-men’s’ meal speaks its own sermon... only few things are necessary.  In fact, only one.  

And when I grasp...

... when I take hold of the truth… 

...when I recognize His enduring quiet Presence in my life… 

... I know that this One...

... this so often overlooked, misunderstood, underestimated, ignored, taken-for-granted, lost-in-the-clutter-of my-life One...

... is more than enough for me.