Spiritual Solutions

The sounds and signs of Christmas are all around us.

So in this special season of the year, I’d like to share with you some of my own Christmas memories and insights.

The first Christmas tree was a small tree that was brought home by Martin Luther in Germany. He brought the tree home because he had seen it out in the snow and the snow was glistening all around it; he brought it home as a symbol of life. He tied candles on that Christmas tree because he said the candles would remind him of the glistening of the snow on the tree. That was the beginning of the tradition of the Christmas tree. Christmas trees symbolize life, that life is evergreen and is always coming forth even in the dark of winter; even in the coldest snow, life is there.

I remember when I was a little kid we actually had candles on our tree; I know we don’t do that any more because it’s considered dangerous. We didn’t have a large tree, but I recall that we put the tree up on Christmas Eve and we had little clips that attached to the branches and candles similar to birthday cake candles slid into the slots which sprang close and held them firm. Then we lighted the candles on Christmas Eve and on Christmas Day.

I remember also as children, especially during the war (World War II that is), we didn’t have much money or many resources but we always seemed to have enough for Christmas and we’d do things like making paper chains. My two sisters and I would make the paper chains and link them together and we’d paint them different colors; then we’d string them around in our living room and the stairs and everywhere. And we’d help put up and decorate the Christmas tree.

In England we didn’t put the presents under the tree; the gifts were delivered to our bedrooms by our parents during the night. Before we went to sleep, as kids, we’d try to find the biggest pillowcase we could and we’d put the empty pillowcase at the bottom of the bed. Of course, it was difficult for us to go to sleep because we were so excited but we knew that Father Christmas as we called him in England would not come if we were not asleep. Finally we’d drop off to sleep and inevitably wake up very early while it was still dark to see if he had been and if it looked like the pillowcases had been filled we’d turn on the light to see what was there. There was usually an apple and an orange and some candy, and the pillowcase would be filled with bulging packages.

Many a Christmas morning I’d be sitting up in bed eating an apple or orange or some candy at four o’clock in the morning; my parents, seeing the light or hearing a noise, would come in and say, “Go to sleep. It’s not time to wake up yet.” But how can you sleep when Father Christmas has been and all the toys are there? It was such a special time for us kids.

Then as I in turn grew up, got married and had kids of my own, what fun it was to try to creep into the bedrooms in the middle of the night with all those noisy packages. You’ve no idea how noisy packages can be when you try to stuff them into a pillowcase; we’d usually try to take the pillowcase and fill it outside the bedroom then take it back in. But I remember one year we had a bicycle to take into the bedroom; it’s pretty hard to do that quietly. But what a joy it is when the kids wake up in the morning and inevitably, as I did with my parents, they’d come in bringing stuff with them and jump on the bed saying “Look what I’ve got, look what I’ve got.”

The Christmas tree, as I said, is a special symbol; in fact any tree is a special symbol of life. If you were to cut across the trunk of a tree you would see the circles of the years of life of that tree. And a woodsman can tell you if that year was a good year or if it was a hard year with perhaps a deep frost, or how much the tree grew that year.

Just like the tree, if we could have a cross-section cut across our souls, we would see the circles and cycles of our lives too. We’d find that some years were hard years, lean years, and bitter years, and other years were good years. And perhaps we’d find in those circles and cycles of growth that some of the toughest years were the times when we grew the most.

Christmas is really symbolic of the birth of new cycles of life. Hear that! It is symbolic of the birth of new cycles of life, the birth of a new awareness within you of the truth of your own being. That’s what Christmas is really about. All the Christmas stories are about that. We awaken to something of which we were previously unaware, and we find we are more than we thought we were.

There is more in us than we had ever known or recognized, for within us is the very image and likeness of God. It is the Christ child, the Christ presence within us.

Christmas is a time when we celebrate and again become aware of the birth or rebirth of our awareness of the indwelling Presence of God.

It’s interesting that Christmastime is a mixture of dark and light. Some of our songs are about darkness: “Silent night, Holy night,” and “It Came Upon the Midnight Clear.” And the gift of love and life that was the Christ child born at night, in the dark, in a stable or actually a cave. And a cave is very symbolic of that darkness, just like the womb; the child comes from the womb, that dark, moist, fertile place. We are often afraid of the dark times of our lives, but it’s usually in those dark times that the true light is born.

In fact, we find in the scriptures that “the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has never put it out.” In the creation story, we find that at first it was dark and then God said, “Let there be light,” not to eradicate the darkness but just to bring balance with the darkness, “and he called the dark night and the light day.” So if we can embrace both aspects of the dark and the light and not shun the darkness in our lives, we will be able to recognize the greater light within us, the truth of God’s presence.

The Christmas story is really all about this. Christmas is symbolic of the awakening to the birth of the Christ within us, and this same story has been told in different ways for eons of time to bring hope and light to those in darkness of spirit.

In Isaiah 9 we read “for to us a child is born; to us a son is given.” That inner child is given to us. “And the government will be upon his shoulder.” That’s a decision we need to make, a decision to place the government upon “his shoulder,” upon the shoulder of the Spirit of God indwelling, upon the Christ child born in us.

“And his name will be called . . .” His “name” means “the nature” – what is the nature of this child? His name will be called “Wonderful.” It is a child of wonder. In an Emmett Fox book there is a chapter called “The Wonder Child,” and he says once we have awakened to this spiritual idea it will always be with us; always, even if we fall away from it, even if we wander in darkness or in desert, that spiritual idea will come back to us. We will recapture it again as we open ourselves to it, and we will never be without it. It’s always been with us, but our awareness has not always been there. So the child within is a child of wonder, and you will be wonder-filled as you come into the awareness of the Christ within you. As you come into that spiritual awakening, you are filled with wonder.

Isn’t that the feeling you had when you first came into that awakening, an overwhelming feeling? Can you remember the first time when you had an inkling of God’s Spirit indwelling you? I’ve had many people say to me, “When I first heard those words spoken and that I knew were so true, I started to cry.” Know that those tears are tears of awakening, tears of healing, tears that have been bottled up a long time in your wanderings of not knowing, tears of joy and gratitude at the new-found realization of your true self.

And his name (his nature) will be “Counselor.” What is a counselor but one who brings guidance. We have our own inner counselor. Jesus referred to that counselor when he said “the Comforter will come.” Guidance is always available to us, guiding us in the right direction.

“Mighty God” – the whole presence of God is present within us, not just a little particle of it. The whole presence of God is mighty within us, everlasting to everlasting, eternal within us. That’s the nature of God in us, the nature of this truth in us.

“Everlasting Father” – you see, everlasting to everlasting. And with those words we recognize our unity in the Creator, the Father of all. We recognize our oneness, everlastingly one with God and with one another.

“Prince of Peace” – Is there any greater gift than peace, peace of mind, peace of soul, where we release any anxiety or fear that we may have in life? The Prince of Peace is right there within you. As we surrender to that, as we give ourselves to that, as we put the government upon his shoulder, as we let go and let God, then the anxiety leaves us. It doesn’t mean we don’t do anything, it doesn’t mean we just sit back as we put the government on his shoulder saying, “OK, do your thing!” We are moved by that Spirit to do the things that are ours to do, and we are centered in peace, centered in the very presence of God.

And “of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end . . . from this time forth and forever more.”

This Christmas let an inner smile of appreciation, gratitude, and trust fill your heart as you remember your own true nature and see it in all whom you meet as you silently say, “The Christ in me greets the Christ in you, for to us a child is born.”

God is Blessing You, Right Now!    

Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham

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Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham, a Unity minister for over thirty-eight years, invites you to subscribe to his free inspirational newsletter, Spiritual Solutions.

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