It is strange how strongly identified Christmas has become with the Currier and Ives vision of a New England winter scene. Especially when you consider what a small percentage of those in the US, and certainly in the world, have ever experienced Christmas in those circumstances. As I write this there is a flurry of snow falling outside my Southern Maine, not quite New England, window with just a dusting showing on bare ground, and I admit that, hope against hope, I am hoping for ground cover by mid-day. These days you can not count on a white Christmas in New England. I think we have had only 2 out of the past 5 years. I had to go back to January of this year to find this image.

And certainly the source of Christmas, the reason for the season, the greatest story ever told, does not include, or justify, a snowy countryside nostalgia. Joseph and Mary had enough trouble with the inn and all without seeing them, and the donkey, trudging through fresh snow.

So, I am going to have to just go with it. When I think of Christmas it is a white Christmas…and I am always slightly disappointed when it is not. We have a chance…just a slim, 30% at any given hour, maybe totaling 1 inch…chance today.

But wherever you are celebrating (or not celebrating) Christmas today, I wish you the blessings of unconditional love, complete forgiveness, absolute mercy, and a grace…a gift of hope…that goes well beyond whatever you might deserve. I give my thanks for that gift, which I for one desperately need, to God in Jesus Christ, remembering the birth of the Son of God, the Son of Man, and the Prince of Peace…and celebrating in the spirit of creative love that, miraculously, still lives in me. Merry Christmas to you all.