A Thing Most Wonderful

Listening to 24/7 Christmas music on the radio, I heard an advertisement for the all-new Paper Wonder cards by Hallmark, which promise to bring the holidays to life in a whole new way, offering the gift of holiday magic to friends and family. They appear to be a new and improved model of the pop-up books that seldom survived to the third child in our family. 

 

Merriam Webster defines the noun wonder as “the quality of exciting amazed admiration, or rapt attention of astonishment at something awesomely mysterious or new to one’s experience.” I doubt the new Hallmark cards totally fulfill that definition of wonder, but “the holiday season,” seemingly stretching on forever through the often dark and dreary days of December, does invite us to an exciting amazement within the awesome mystery of faith.

 

Think of the commemoration of Hanukkah, when the one-day supply of oil lasted for eight days, bringing light to the Hebrew people. Or of Kwanzaa, the December celebration honoring African heritage, and lifting up the principles of unity, self-determination, collective work and responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity, and faith. With its Mishumaa Saba (seven candles), wonder is reflected on the faces of the children of the family, much the same as in the light of the Hanukkah candles or the Advent candles of the Christian tradition.

 

Our sweet granddaughter, the delightful and determined Elizabeth Holiday, has perfected the expression of three-year-old wonder at the delights of the Christmas season. The lights, the decorations and the carols all bring her joy, and she has approached the opening of early presents with great gusto. A visit to a personable Santa at the mall left her starry-eyed, and she chuckles with deep laughter when we drive past our neighbor’s house, as the Grinch attempts to pull down their Christmas light display. 

 

Margaret Philbrick suggests that children own wonder. “It’s engrained in the purity of their hearts and expressed through their senses.” She further notes, “They do not rush to get up and get on to the next thing. They gaze.”

I remember when I too was captivated by wonder. I stood on my bed for what seemed like hours to scour the night sky for the appearance of the “right jolly old elf,” but finally succumbed to the pull of my dreams. A few years later, I kept my Christmas Eve candle alight into the midnight darkness, protecting its flickering flame during the drive home. I longed to sustain the holy awe of worship, unwilling for the wonder of my young heart to be extinguished. 

In the years since, I’ve developed a complicated relationship with Christmas. Some changes came naturally, as they do for many adults. The 24/7 Christmas music, the cha-ching of the cash/credit register, and the “I want, I want” call of constant advertising threaten to make these December weeks a burden to bear rather than an awe to embrace. My experience was complicated by my exhausting Salvation Army work, as the demands of fund-raising and people-serving colluded to hijack any sense of wonder I had in the holiday. In my attempt to fulfill a calling to ministry that intersected where my deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger met (Frederick Buechner), it’s ironic that a sense of wonder at the mystery of the incarnation flickered dangerously, just like my childhood Christmas Eve candle. 

And yet, the words of E.B. White continue to speak: “Always be on the lookout for the presence of wonder,” the wonder that shines from the eyes of children and has no patience for the scrooges among us. We claim it on a midnight clear, in the little town of Bethlehem, and in the echo of the angels: “Gloria in excelsis Deo.” 

In the next days, a holy book will be opened and the ancient words read aloud once again: “And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.” Indeed, it is a thing most wonderful. A blessed Christmas of wonder to you.