Well, its supposed to be my time of year, yet I don’t have a “Ho, Ho, Ho” left. I keep musing “How can I do this all again?” I don’t mean the actual how. With timing and technology I can get all my deliveries done in a little under two days. I play with the international date line to expand my reach. I don’t rely on a sleigh and reindeer any more. I miss those days of wind in my beard and my girls flying at top speed. The world population hasn’t been small enough for that method for a century or more.
So how do I do it now you ask? First, the sleigh is bigger on the inside, than it looks from the outside, very much like the Doctor’s Tardis police box. If you didn’t understand that explanation, ask a geeky friend. How I make the trip itself is my secret. I will say it involves a lot of theoretical physics.
In fact our whole set up is high tech. We have been working with the Japanese and others to develop bleeding edge robots for toy manufacturing. Name a large toy and/or game maker and we likely supply their product. Our North Pole factory has been totally green since the turn of the millennium. Batteries and other energy storage devices are charged to capacity.
But back to my current dilemma. Listen, when you are a few hundred years old you may ramble a bit as well. It’s Christmas Eve and I just don’t want to spend the next 48 hours delivering toys. I’m certainly not in it for the cookies. If I could collect them all, we would be stuck with tons of them uneaten. Thanks, I’m sure they are great, but I can’t take the time to collect them. Keep putting out the reindeer food. Mrs Claus makes a mean salad from the greens for the staff, including yours truly.
I snowshoe rabbit trailed again. So sorry. The only way to get past my Christmas funk is to remember the basics. I walk out to my “sleigh” and kneel in the snow. Just kneeling reminds me Who is in charge. “Lord of the universe, Master of Time and Space I bow my heart and mind before you. Once again I face a task too large for me. I need to be reminded again of why.” The North Pole falls away. I find myself surrounded by Snow White light. This light strikes warm, vibrant and intelligent. This charged light stretches to forever in all directions. Ground and wind are gone in the presence of this light. I float directionless in the wise existence of God. As I reach out in thought I feel the intelligence reaching back. We are in communion.
Then I feel part of the infinite close off. The eternal presence changes shrinks a bit.The shock of loss drives me to ask, “What just happened?”
As my question echoes through the Being, reality shifts to a night sky over a mountainous field. I am surrounded by shining presences. One falls from us illuminating a few motley men below. After many seconds the company lifts themselves into fantastic song of praise. My insides melt at the loving tones that surround me. When they cease I tear up. I can’t help it. I will never hear such love and joy again. We shift to an ancient barn. A young couple surrounds a newborn, the One just hailed in song. His is wrapped in not quite clean strips of cloth and is sleeping in a rough splintered wedding trough.
Yet again the scene transforms. I recognize the young woman, though the years seem to have landed on her and bent her low. Her tears form muddy tracks down her cheeks. She glances up at a tortured man spread eagled against the sky turning away and drawn back to her son’s agony. His beaten and broken body has been cruelly tacked to a beam of wood to die. Eyes flaming with the light of eternity, Jesus gazes at me. His voice sounds in my consciousness, “I love you, Nicholas.” He bows his head in death. My tears mercifully crowd out the rest of the scene.
I lay wrapped in darkness. I don’t know or care how long. My pulse is my only companion. I hate its rhythm. It feel like that muscle is jeering his death. Sunrise begins to crawl over mountains. My place shifts again. I float over evenly spaced stones, many rolled over holes, closing the decaying dead from the living. A few stones wait for others to die. One stone casts its shadow over gloomy, bored soldiers. It has been marked and sealed shut. I wait. Light streaks down from the sky, two streaks of holy intelligence. The first breaks upon the soldiers. They rise in terror to run, then their hearts fail them and they fall to the ground. As they lay low shaking their heads and regaining their wits the second angel joins the first. The take up posts at either side of the stone. The greatest unboxing of all time is about to take place! Spears and swords of light jab out around the stone! Glowing fingers reach from inside, grab the stone and roll it out of the way. The dead man inside, Jesus, steps forth as each angel takes a knee. Jesus looks at me once again. His voice speaks to my thoughts, “As I have come through death, so shall you, Nicholas, so shall you.”
God lets me go and I am once again kneeling in the snow, my heart thudding in my ears. He gave the gift of his life, his heavenly life and then his earthly life for me. My heart responds to that thought, “I want to give to as many as I can! Even If I can give just a sliver of joy and hope I have in Jesus!” With a grin I jump in my sleigh and shout “Merry Christmas world!”
