I have often wondered how pine trees and snow became so emblematic of Christmas in our Western culture, and, of course, any AI engine will give you the full story: evergreens and unquenchable life from pre-Christian times, and Paradise Trees from Medieval German Mystery Plays, Queen Victoria and Charles Dickens, and Currier and Ives, even Bing Crosby’s White Christmas and Coca-Cola Santas in the snow…but my feeling is that all of those influences are really part of an inherent response to the miracle of the birth of the One child who sets us all free to be who we have always been, Children of the One Being. Life, green and vibrant, triumphant against a backdrop of clinging death. Snow, do your worst, we will outlive you into the spring and summer to come! For we have true life in us. We will be here when you have melted away! I know that is a lot to put on pine trees in the snow…and a lot to put on a baby born in a stable far from home 2000 years ago…but there you have it! Christmas does not speak to our rational mind…it speaks in words of wonder to the part of us that can still wonder…and tells us all we need to know. The One Being is right here, looking out of the eyes of every child, and living in the eyes and hearts of every human being. Even the cold purity of death will not quench that life. And that is a very Merry Christmas to us all!