Friday, December 26, 2025
Feast of Saint Stephen, First Martyr
(click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
Family gathering
Driving home Christmas afternoon, it was obvious that life was gearing up again. Cars sped by us in the Austin traffic. The shepherds returned to the field … and we return to work – back to rat races and stressful life in fast lanes.
But in the morning, it was quiet on the highways as we drove to be with family. Four lanes of concrete, empty at rush hour. Margaret once said she read that 81% of Americans did not travel on Christmas Day. We parked at Andi’s house and Miles and Jasper ran out to help carry in boxfuls of gifts. They were ready! Ken and Machiko, Aki’s parents, arrived before us. We all made it by 8 am. Andi made pigs-in-a-blanket for breakfast, and we ate them.
Time to open all those presents? Not yet.
Aki prayed a prayer re-dedicating their family to God. Andi propped up her camera on the top of an artist’s easel and we made a family picture, including Finn at his first Christmas.
We played “pass the parcel” – and Miles won the use of a Squishmallows Elf pillow for the day.
Everyone sat around the table. Andi shared Patricia Pollaco’s An Orange for Frankie, a wonderful story of redemption. I read another Christmas nativity picture, showing the pictures as we went along.
Now it’s time to open the presents? Not yet.
Miles and Jasper, with help from their parents, had organized a nativity play, and all of us had parts. Some of us were given costumes. Each of us had a marked script. We sang verses of several carols. The narrator (Miles) is becoming quite a good reader. Jasper played three roles and carried a big shepherd’s staff. Finn was a natural, playing baby Jesus. (The elf pillow made a fine pregnancy bulge for Mary before Jesus was born).
And now, at last, 90 minutes after we arrived, we began to get at the gifts. Which seemed wonderful to me – the usual early Christmas morning frenzy postponed while we did the Real Stuff first. Andi prepared the boys well, and they were involved in everything we did. It was an amazing time. The present-giving really seemed secondary to honoring and worshiping Jesus.
The day before on Christmas Eve after a family party at our apartment, we walked across the street to a moving Christmas Eve service complete with movie clips, carols, and candles. Pastor Matt read a story to the kids, who piled up in the front. We left the packed church and drove three minutes to Walhill Lane, where Christmas displays have become larger and larger over the years we’ve been here.
Now twenty-four hours later, it’s evening of Christmas Day, and I cherish the feeling inside me. In the Illinois country for many years, miles away from big highways and city lights, I remember looking up. Stars blew up the sky. Constellations were clear and sharp. Usually the air was cold and soundless. Standing there outside my parent’s home in this awesome dark, nothing more needed to be done – at last there was no hurry, no rush. Right there, God was providing all the time I could ever need. Time to just to stand there and look up.
Can I hold that stillness in the morning? As the angels are once again silent, can I find my own silence to carry with me into December 26? And the day after?
God never stops inviting me to breathe in the silence. God does not stop breathing, does he? Listen for it:
In careful hands
God held the molten world –
fragile filigree
of unfinished blown glass.
Then Mary’s word: Yes!
rose like a pillar of fire,
and Breath blew creation
into Christened crystal.
— Irene Zimmerman
This air of yours, Lord, is precious and rare. Breathing in and breathing out, I look for ways to say yes to you today. Again … yes. Always … yes.
(Acts 6-7, Psalm 31, Psalm 118, Matthew 10)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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