This blog is available in audio form as an MP3 (2.8 MB, 7:55). It’s transcribed in full below for the listening-impaired. 🙂

Christmastime is here. Perhaps when you hear those three words, like me, you think of the song made famous by “A Charlie Brown Christmas.” Perhaps you hear a choir of children singing the lyrics, while the soft piano, smooth bass, and subdued drums of the Vince Guaraldi Trio provide the accompaniment. It was hearing this song on the radio yesterday, as I drove through town on an errand, that finally broke down the walls. It was a bittersweet realization, but it’s inevitable. Christmastime is here.

I’m not a religious man. Nonetheless, Christmas has always been a special time of year for me. It’s a magical time for everyone. Charles Dickens taught us that at Christmastime, even a miserly old curmudgeon can find a kind heart within himself–given the proper motivation. John Marks, through the voice of Gene Autry, told us that even a four-legged misfit with a beacon for a nose can be a hero on Christmas Eve. Philip Van Doren Stern wrote a story that would eventually become Frank Capra’s masterpiece, ‘It’s a Wonderful Life.” Valentine Davies wrote a tale we now know as “The Miracle on 34th Street.” Both tell of the magic and miracles that seem to happen at this most wonderful time of the year.

The true miracles at Christmas are those of human kindness. Because of that, it’s sad that only one day of the year is set aside for this sort of compassion. I wish that every day could be like Christmas. What a wonderful world we would live in!

There is a poem that I have always associated with Christmas and its religious nature. I’d like to share it with you. It’s long, but bear with me.

Read the poem here: http://kd4dcy.net/blog/?page_id=522

Devout Christians are driven constantly to be more Christ-like. They seek to live their lives and interact with their fellow man in the way that Jesus is said to have done. Bracelets, license plates, and jewelry all scream out the question, “WWJD?” What Would Jesus Do? Indeed, if you strip away all the ritual, peel back the threat of hell and the promise of heaven, and cut down to the very essence of it, being a good Christian is about being a good person. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Love thy neighbor. Honor thy father and thy mother. Are these not the basic tenets of every society’s ideal human behavior?

Conrad expected God to appear on his doorstep. Whether he expected a deity of pure light or the image of George Burns in a flannel shirt, like most Christians, he sat back and waited for God to show him a miracle. We’re led to believe that Conrad is a deeply faith-driven man, but even such a man hasn’t realized that most of the miracles we ascribe to God really come from us, from our hearts. Whether it’s faith, fear of hell, or just simple human compassion that bring out these miracles, they’re beautiful.

Could any of us hear a lost child crying on our doorstep and not immediately offer aid? Would any of us turn away a freezing man to wander off and die on a cold winter night? How many among us would not offer a place of comfort and a bit of sustenance to a woman on the brink of exhaustion? I hope I never meet the man whose heart has become so hardened.

Christians use the metaphor, “God is love.” I tend to think of that as more of a truism. The love and compassion of one human being for another is the closest thing to true righteousness that I can imagine. Christmas brings that out in people. It softens the hardest heart, and urges even the most introverted of people to open their minds, their homes, and their lives to family and friends. So, while it’s still not optimal to focus on one particular season for giving and for loving, I’m glad we do have at least one time of year when folks feel more free to do so.

I mentioned before that it was a bittersweet realization that Christmastime is here. My parents are both gone, so I have no real family left with whom to spend the holidays. My friends are all in other parts of the country, and I can’t really afford to travel to them, either. So, for the first time in many years, I’m going to be spending Christmas alone. Unlike Conrad, I won’t sit around this week and wait for God or even Godot. Instead, I’ll be proactively looking for a way to make someone else’s Christmas a little brighter.

For everyone listening to this, I’d like to take this opportunity to wish you all of the joy this season has to offer. From me to you, Merry Christmas, and may your 2006 be happy and prosperous.