+ The Good Life

Davis Family Greetings - Christmas 2022

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

A Penetrating Christmas Poem by Christopher Fry

The poet, Christopher Fry, articulates a question suggested by the Christmas drama of the Gospels:

 

The darkest time in the year.

The poorest place in the town.

Cold, and a taste of fear.

Man and woman alone.

What can we hope for here?

 

More light than we can learn,

More strength than we can treasure,

More love than we can earn,

More peace than we can measure.

Because one child is born*

 

 

As through a single flake

Of snow touching the earth

Would all our thirsting slake

And turn all death to birth

Bidding our spirits wake

 

To what makes many one.

The deep solicitude

Which bred both star and bone.

Claiming, by stable and rood

God’s will to be our own.

 

(Christopher Fry)

 

  

 

Christmas Vision

A woman captured my attention at Rotary Club.  “I’m a mutant,” she said. “Most people have three color receptors in their eyes. I have four.  I see 99 million more colors than the average person.” 

I goggled Concetta Antico. Her story seems legitimate. Concetta said, “I consider my mutation a gift.” Her vision acuity is called tetrachromatic.  She uses her ability in her profession as an artist.  “But sometimes my vision gift can become a challenge,” she acknowledged.  “The riot of colors in a supermarket aisle, can be a bit overwhelming.”  I wonder how Concetta does with Christmas tree lights.

Tetrachromatic vision has its benefits, but super-human vision is not needed to see the beauty of the earth and the glory of the skies.  Much more important than an additional receptor in the eye, is the focus of the mind.  Consider Vincent Van Gogh.  He covered his canvas with brilliant colors, and some scholars now believe he was missing a color receptor.  They suggest that he was colorblind.

Whether we have two, three or four color receptors, we humans have the ability to choose how we focus our mind’s eye.  Will we decide to look beyond the horrid sights that sometimes fill our screens when we flip a channel or click the mouse?  Will we envision an alternative picture of hope?

The Christian scripture teaches that while mad kings were doing their dastardly things in days of old, God was bathing a little town of Bethlehem in light. God still imparts to human hearts the blessings of heaven. I have found that when my head gets to the heart of this message I have better potential to become a receptor and reflector of God’s beauty.  

Who is in Charge?

You usually know who is boss by those who are being served.  Countries have their kings, and they have their servants.  So too, do businesses, even churches.  For years I was the Sr. Pastor in a church with staff members and volunteers responding to my directions and doing what I asked of them.  “I can’t say no to the pastor,” people would tell me as they responded to my requests for service in the church.  One man said, “A ‘no’ to my pastor might place me in spiritual peril.” 

Those who work for us know they can’t say no to us.  It could get them fired. Everyone knows who is boss by who is being served.  

Yet Jesus turned this way of thinking on its ear.  He was a servant king.  He showed his kingship through service.  He said “yes” to our great need for salvation by giving of himself.  I am most like Jesus when I give and serve, when service flows purely from my personality, and when I do this naturally and without conscious thought.  On the other hand, I am most spiritually poor when I feel entitled to be king, top dog at work, or king of my castle.

When I feel like a big shot, I know I’m in dangerous spiritual territory. I am always blessed when I reorient my life to King Jesus and live more like him, a servant- always a servant with Jesus as my forever King.

At Christmas, we celebrate Jesus as Messiah. We sing and worship saying he is King of King and Lord of Lord. When he's on the throne of my life, I'm in a good place.