Finding the Wonder but Missing the Magic

It never ceases to surprise me in the run up to Christmas that people get so taken aback when things don’t quite work out the way they expected. Relationships sour. Travel plans get disrupted. Presents disappoint. It’s like the Christmas season should be exempt from the normal run of disasters, whether trivial or serious, that happen in life. That promised love, joy and peace should come to us, at least for the season, unconditionally guaranteed. Instead, Christians are bombed in Baghdad, travellers stranded in Gatwick, homes flooded in Kent. Life’s so unfair. Shouldn’t this be a time filled with magic and wonder?

Well - Wonder - yes. I’m not so sure about the Magic. At least, not the sort of conjuring act magic that promises you everything you ever wanted on a plate. But there is a very real wonder about Christmas, and it’s a wonder that can be found even when life throws up the most awful things. Because it’s nota sense of wonder based on a jolly Santa Claus idea, but on a powerful God-with-us reality that cannot be shaken by circumstances.

It’s a carol from a previous century that expresses it well -  “How silently, how silently The wondrous gift is given!” It is in the quiet unspectacular corners of the human heart that God works His wonders, and leaves us amazed.