So now what? At Christmas we affirmed the birth of the Christ within us. So what happens now? Where do we go from here?

We often go back to the same old routine, the same patterns and beliefs, the same mistakes we have made before. We forget that we have affirmed a truth of our being, of the presence of God born into our awareness in a whole new way.

I was reminded of this recently when talking to a man who was telling me about his dog. He said, “We have a wonderful little dog in our family, but he does some stupid things. He likes chocolate, and chocolate is poison to dogs. A few weeks ago somebody brought a chocolate cake over. They had put it on the table. We turned away from the table for a moment and when we turned back around he was eating the cake; almost all the cake was gone. So we phoned the vet and the vet said to bring him over, so we took him over and the vet pumped his stomach.

“Then just a week before Christmas my wife and family had gone shopping and I was the first one home. When I came into the house I saw some Christmas wrapping under the tree. There had only been one gift there as I recall; we hadn’t put the other gifts under the tree yet. Then I remembered it was a box of Russell Stover candy!

“I called the dog, but the dog was hiding somewhere. So I called the vet and told him the whole story, and that the dog being the only one there obviously must have eaten the candy.

“The vet asked me how much was in the box. I told him, ‘About eight ounces.’ The vet said, ‘Well, eight ounces, he should be all right. He’ll be very sick, but he’ll be OK. So don’t worry too much about it.’ Then he asked, ‘What about the box?’ I said, ‘Well, I think he must have eaten the box too.’”

The dog was drawn to the very stuff that made him sick, that could even take his life.

Sometimes we, too, are drawn or addicted to the very things that make us sick and can take life away from us – not only food, but attitudes of mind, relationships, and all kinds of things. So, at this time of year we want to change that around, don’t we?

You see, at the heart of Christianity, at the heart of spirituality, is transformation. Transformation means change, and we want to change, don’t we? We want to be the best person we can be. That’s why we join health clubs and make all kinds of New Year resolutions.

But I suggest that we don’t just make a New Year resolution and then break it two or three weeks down the road, feeling guilty because we haven’t lived up to our resolution. Rather, let’s resolve to focus on something we have already affirmed, on the Christ child born within us, on God’s presence made new in our awareness. How do we come to that new awareness?

Perhaps we can look at it this way: Not long ago I was watching a movie where a man was trying to explain his relationship with his wife. He said, “We are so different; I’m CNN and she’s Home Shopping Network.”

So let ask you, “If you were to quickly decide what channel you would align yourself with in your inner being, what would it be? Would it be one of the major channels, would it be a news channel, or an entertainment channel, or a sports channel, what would it be? There are many channels.

There are many inner channels within us too, many more than on the television. There are drama channels, there are crisis channels, there are happy channels, peace-giving channels, there are negative channels, and suffering channels. We often choose to tune in to the suffering channel, don’t we? We might say something like this: “This is my life, it’s one of suffering, and I’ve got all these problems.” And we recite a long litany of victimization, of things that have gone wrong in our lives. So we keep tuned in to that suffering channel and we don’t recognize the truth of our being.

How do we stop eating of the same stuff that makes us sick and takes away our lives? How do we stop tuning in to that suffering channel?

We have to switch channels. I’m suggesting that we switch, within ourselves, to the Discovery channel, in order to discover the truth and the impact of the birth of the Christ child within us. That we don’t just put the Christ child away for another year or another week or another day, but bring that presence fully into our life. How do we do that?

Jesus gives us a clue. In the gospel of John it is recorded that Jesus was talking to his disciples and said, “I am the bread of life.” He also said, “You must learn to eat of me.” He said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood you have no life in you. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life and I will raise him up at the last day, for my flesh is food indeed and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him. As the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so he who eats me will live because of me.”

Now these were words that then as now were difficult to understand and a lot of his disciples and followers left him at that point.

Jesus is saying “I am the bread of life,” or “I am the substance of life.” What Jesus was saying is that “You need to assimilate me into your very being. Assimilate not me the person, but the Christ, the presence.” He is speaking from his Christ presence; he is speaking from the reality of the God presence within him.

Think over the Christmas period; perhaps you had turkey or ham or steak or tofu or whatever you had. When you ate that, your body absorbed it and assimilated it, the enzymes broke it down, and it became a part of your body. The energy of it changed and became a part of you. So you could truly say, “The turkey and I are one!” Isn’t that true?

Jesus is telling us to refocus our attention from saying, “The suffering and I are one,” “The illusion and I are one,” “The appearances and I are one,” to “The Father and I are one.”

He is telling us to eat of this truth that the presence of God abides in you right now, was born in you, and needs to grow in you “in wisdom and in stature” as it says in the scriptures. Eat of this bread, eat of this truth of the Christ born in you; assimilate it into every cell of your being and into every activity.

So that’s what we want to try to do, to eat of that truth. Jesus knew that whatever we focus upon expands. If we focus upon the suffering, if we focus upon the negativity, if we focus upon the limitation and the lack, that’s what expands in our consciousness.

We are directing a very powerful spiritual energy, a spiritual power, in the wrong way; we are misdirecting the power of faith. You see, our faith is directed toward what we believe, isn’t it? So we need to direct our faith in a different way.

So we put the faith in partnership with that presence of God within us. In this way we begin to “eat” of the bread of life. And we grow in wisdom and in stature.

As we focus on God, it expands and grows. It is not a “child” any more.

We talk about the Christ child and we often stay in that image of the presence of God within us being like a child, that we are a child of God. But we forget that it “grows in wisdom and stature.” We need to engage ourselves consciously with our own spirituality, with the growth of God’s presence within us so that it takes over in our lives.

St. Paul talked about that expansion. He said, “We become not only children of God, but heirs of God. We become sons of God, and if sons then heirs.” (Galatians 4)

We are heirs to all the good that God has in store for us. We have to know that. We are sons and daughters of God, not just children of God. That’s an important distinction, for we are growing in wisdom and stature as we align ourselves with God’s presence within us. And it doesn’t happen all at once.

Paul relates to that in the same book, in Galatians, a little farther on. He says, “Until Christ is formed in you . . .”

This is a process; it’s called spiritual formation, where that consciousness becomes formed, where that Christ within you, that God presence within you, becomes formed and becomes your very being. It begins to take over your being.

In this process we move from the beginning of faith, which is belief. We begin to believe in the presence of God within us, we begin to believe that the Christ is born within us. The Buddhists call that first step of faith “the attraction phase.” We are attracted to the idea and we see the possibility of it.

The next stage is trust. We begin to recognize and believe in that possibility, we begin to trust it and step out on the truth of God’s presence within us. And we begin to verify that trust, because as we step out on that trust then things begin to change for us.

Transformation takes place; it’s not just a resolution that three or four weeks down the road fades into the dust. It is a transformation that takes place, and our whole consciousness begins to shift. We begin to trust.

And that leads to the reality of faith, and faith is the movement of the divine presence which forms substance in our lives. It brings about that which we focus upon. So we focus our faith on the truth of God’s presence within us, and that truth begins to express through us in multiple ways.

Here are three action steps for you to take.

The first one is simply to recognize your need.

So often we try to pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps, we want to be strong, we make these resolutions and hold to them; and we do it with a death grip. But the subconscious is stronger than the will and so often we seem to fail and we beat ourselves over the head with it.

We need to realize that there is a greater power within us. If we recognize the need to turn to the greater power within us and to let that presence and power grow within our consciousness, then things begin to change automatically. We begin to live a life, not of suffering but of discovery, we begin to discover new things about ourselves, that there’s a great power within us. It’s a presence and power that is always active. So that’s the first thing, to recognize the need.

The second step is to reflect, to take time for reflection, to reflect upon our fears because our fears are what are often expressed in our lives as resentment and unforgiveness, anxiety and doubt. In back of all of those things is fear.

So we need to think about what those fears are. And as we begin to focus on the steps of faith, we begin to say, “I believe in God’s presence within me.” And that brings up a lot of stuff; write that stuff down. “If I believe this, what is it bringing up?” Write it down. What are those fears it brings up? And when you are ready to agree to that statement that “I believe in this,” then move to the next one. “I trust.” Move from belief to trust. “I trust in the presence of God within me.” The Buddhists call that level of faith “the level of confidence.” You have confidence in that presence.

Once you agree with that, then move to the presence of faith. And that is “irreversible” in the Buddhist tradition of the levels of faith. That is the irreversible part, where you are indeed one with that presence and you can say, “I am one with goodness and the fulfillment of God’s presence in my life.” You see, it’s not “I’m going to have this. I’m going to get this. This is coming to me.”

Rather, it’s “I am one with it.” “I’m living a life of fulfillment right now; I am the bread of life.” So we go through that, but each time writing down the fears that come up. Then a good meditation to do is to breathe in, to take those fears one at a time. Breathe in that fear, then breathe it out in meditation and place it in your hands and let it gather there like a ball. Do that with each one as you breathe it in and breathe it out, all the fears that are there.

Then toward the end of your meditation, visualize a great light or the presence of your guardian angel or God’s presence, however God’s presence reveals itself to you at that particular time. If it’s light, then simply take those fears that you’ve now placed in your hands and are weighing you down and begin to raise them up, raise them up to the light and release them to God’s presence. Let them go. Then focus again on the reality of the birth and the growth of the Christ within you.

The third and last step is to commit time to this process, this process of the growth in wisdom and stature of the Christ child within you. Take time to study, take time to pray, take time to listen to God. Take time for that. It doesn’t happen all at once. It takes a while to turn a ship around; you don’t do it on a dime. So it takes time.

This is the New Year, it’s 2009. The nativity set has been put away; the little baby Jesus has been put away. And it’s not about Jesus; it’s about the Christ being born in you. It’s about the birth and the growth of that presence of God in you.

God has promises to keep for you this year; something wonderful is going to happen for you and through you as you begin to let that Christ grow in wisdom and stature in your life.

God is Blessing You, Right Now!

Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham

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Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham, a Unity minister for over thirty-seven years, invites you to subscribe to his free inspirational newsletter, “Spiritual Solutions,” at Spiritual Solutions. Feel free to share this article in its entirety with a friend.

If you’d like to receive “Rich Words,” featuring weekday inspirational quotes, you can subscribe at Rich Words.

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One Christmas Eve, as he sat alone in his little shop reading of the visit of the Wise Men to the infant Jesus, and of the gifts they brought, he said to himself. “If tomorrow were the first Christmas, and if Jesus were to be born in Marseilles this night, I know what I would give Him!” He rose from his stool and took from a shelf overhead two tiny shoes of softest snow- white leather, with bright silver buckles. “I would give Him those, my finest work.”

Replacing the shoes, he blew out the candle and retired to rest. Hardly had he closed his eyes, it seemed, when he heard a voice call his name…”Martin! Martin!”

Intuitively he felt a presence. Then the voice spoke again…”Martin, you have wished to see Me. Tomorrow I shall pass by your window. If you see Me, and bid Me enter, I shall be your guest at your table.”

Father Martin did not sleep that night for joy. And before it was yet dawn he rose and swept and tidied up his little shop. He spread fresh sand upon the floor, and wreathed green boughs of fir along the rafters. On the spotless linen-covered table he placed a loaf of white bread, a jar of honey, and a pitcher of milk, and over the fire he hung a pot of tea Then he took up his patient vigil at the window.

Presently he saw an old street-sweeper pass by, blowing upon his thin, gnarled hands to warm them. “Poor fellow, he must be half frozen,” thought Martin. Opening the door he called out to him, “Come in, my friend, and warm, and drink a cup of hot tea.” And the man gratefully accepted the invitation.

An hour passed, and Martin saw a young, miserably clothed women carrying a baby. She paused wearily to rest in the shelter of his doorway. The heart of the old cobbler was touched. Quickly he flung open the door.

“Come in and warm while you rest,” he said to her. “You do not look well,” he remarked.

“I am going to the hospital. I hope they will take me in, and my baby boy,” she explained. “My husband is at sea, and I am ill, without a soul.”

“Poor child!” cried Father Martin. “You must eat something while you are getting warm. No, Then let me give a cup of milk to the little one. Ah! What a bright, pretty fellow he is! Why, you have put no shoes on him!”

“I have no shoes for him,” sighed the mother sadly. “Then he shall have this lovely pair I finished yesterday.” And Father Martin took down from the shelf the soft little snow-white shoes he had admired the evening before. He slipped them on the child’s feet…they fit perfectly. And shortly the poor young mother left, two shoes in her hand and tearful with gratitude.

And Father Martin resumed his post at the window. Hour after hour went by, and although many people passed his window, and many needy souls shared his hospitality, the expected Guest did not appear.

“It was only a dream,” he sighed, with a heavy heart. “I did not believe; but he has not come.”

Suddenly, so it seemed to his weary eyes, the room was flooded with a strange light. And to the cobbler’s astonished vision there appeared before him, one by one, the poor street-sweeper, the sick mother and her child, and all the people whom he had aided during the day. And each smiled at him and said. “Have you not seen me? Did I not sit at your table?” Then they vanished.

At last, out of the silence, Father Martin heard again the gentle voice repeating the old familiar words. “Whosoever shall receive one such in My name, receiveth Me…for I was an hungered, and ye gave Me meat; I was athirst, and ye gave Me drink; I was a stranger, and ye took Me in…verily I say unto you, inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these, ye have done it unto Me.”

God is Blessing You, Right Now!

Merry Christmas!

Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham

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Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham, a Unity minister for over thirty-seven years, invites you to subscribe to his free inspirational newsletter, “Spiritual Solutions,” at Spiritual Solutions. Feel free to share this article in its entirety with a friend.

If you’d like to receive “Rich Words,” featuring weekday inspirational quotes, you can subscribe at Rich Words.

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Are you battling with a problem that you cannot do anything about?

If so, let it go!

It may not be the answer you want to hear, but once you let go, life lightens up for you.

You see, there are some things you can change and there are some things you can’t change.

Learning to accept what is will help your life flow without stress or turmoil.

Knowing what you can or can’t change is the key.

For example, you book a camping holiday but accept that you can’t do anything to book nice weather. So, if it blows a gale and throws down enough rain to fill a lake, you just have to accept that’s the way it is.

You then have choices …accept the way it is and moan or accept the way it is and have fun.

Accepting what is allows you to bring out your better qualities.

When you stop dwelling on the things you can’t change, you avoid anxiety and all those pesky emotions that make you feel frustrated and depressed.

You start to flow with life.

So, if you’re in a situation that is causing you some stress, first ask yourself … Can I change this?

If you can, then do so!

If it’s something that you really can’t change, then ask yourself …

Can I accept this?

Acceptance can be challenging because the ego fights it.

It’s in our nature to try and control and shape a situation to suit us. When we can’t, our ego cries, shouts and makes as much noise as possible.

Realize that it’s just your ego that holds you back, and gently accept. 

T.S. Eliot once said…

“Only by acceptance of the past, can you alter it.”

Life will flow more freely when you accept what is.

God is Blessing You, Right Now!

Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham

PS. I would like to recommend Karl’s blog to you. You’ll notice I’ve shared quite a few of his blog posts in the past; they are most often inspiring and insightful. It’s free to join his mailing list to receive blog posts in your email; just go to www.karlblog.com and you can subscribe in the box at the top right-hand corner of his blog pages. Meanwhile, enjoy a Christmas card from Karl.

Click here to view it - http://www.karlchristmas.com/

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Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham, a Unity minister for over thirty-seven years, invites you to subscribe to his free inspirational newsletter, “Spiritual Solutions,” at Spiritual Solutions. Feel free to share this article in its entirety with a friend.

If you’d like to receive “Rich Words,” featuring weekday inspirational quotes, you can subscribe at Rich Words.

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As a young boy he was with his younger brother on a bus, traveling from Cincinnati to Canton, Ohio, on Christmas Eve. They didn’t have their parents with them because, he said, “My parents had to go to Pittsburgh, so they couldn’t be with us. So they left us with a best friend of my mother’s who then put us on the bus.

“We’re on the bus, and I’m looking through the window and seeing the snow beginning, light snow flakes are falling as I’m watching. My brother is sleeping next to me. As I watch the snow begins to get stronger, and snow flakes begin to rush past the window as the bus is going along. So I woke my brother up, because he always felt he wanted to have an adventure wherever we went and it usually seemed to pass us by. I thought maybe this would be the opportunity, that we’d run into a snow bank or something and maybe boarded by bandits, so I thought I’d wake him up.

“So I woke him up and I let him sit in my place by the window because our mother always said that we needed to exchange places and not fight over it, so we always did it even though my mother wasn’t there. We exchanged places and he pressed his face against the glass and watched. He kept saying to me, ‘More snow, more snow, more snow.’ And indeed, the snow kept coming and coming, and soon the bus was slowed to a crawl; it went slower and slower, and we felt it pull into a gas station. I’d heard the bus driver talking on his radio asking what he should do; he must have been told to pull into this gas station and he did. There was a restaurant there in the form of an old railroad car.

“The bus driver stood up and said, ‘We all need to go into the restaurant. So bundle up.’ So we bundled up, pulled our hats over our ears and put on our mittens or gloves and we all made our way into the restaurant. Once in the restaurant we didn’t know what was going to happen, and the bus driver said, ‘It looks like we might have to stay here tonight until the roads are clear, until the snow ploughs are out and clear the snow away.’ And I got frightened and my brother started to cry. He said, ‘I want to go to Aunt Alice’s.’

“That’s where we were on there way toward, our uncle and aunt in Canton, Ohio, and we would meet with our parents there. We were worried, and all the people were worried. They didn’t want to stay with strangers on Christmas Eve, of all times. So they were all upset. But pretty soon they began to settle down and some of the adults started drinking coffee or eating chicken salad sandwiches, and some just sat staring at their hands.

“Then this strange woman came up to my brother and me and said, ‘You’re too young to be traveling alone on that bus.’ Then she said, ‘I want to buy you some hot chocolate.’ So she took us to the counter and bought hot chocolate. And we had hot chocolate. But my brother kept crying and crying; he was really unhappy. He said, ‘I want to go to Aunt Alice’s and sing the manger song and eat cookies and have presents. I want to go. . . .’ He burst into tears again. I didn’t know how to placate him and settle him down.

“But a strange thing happened just about that time; all the people began to talk to each other. I noticed that little groups started forming; they were laughing and joking with one another and telling each other about their families, where they’d come from and where they were going and where they were spending Christmas.

“Pretty soon there was a lot of excitement going on; I thought this would cheer up my little brother, but it didn’t. He kept saying, ‘I want to go to my aunties, I want to sing the manger song, and I want to eat cookies, and . . .’ He just started crying all over again.

“The strange lady who had introduced herself as Mrs. Margaret Mills and who had told me that her husband was dead – I don’t know why she told me that, but she said her husband was dead – came up to us again and said, ‘Why don’t you go and sit down in the booth?’ So we went and sat in the booth and she kept looking at us. Finally she came over to us and said, ‘I’d like to join you. Do you mind?’ And she sat down, and she took up a lot of room because she was a big lady.

“She kept looking at my brother. And then the strangest thing that I’d ever seen happened. Her face, which was kind of ugly and scared me a little bit because she had a big nose and a huge neck, began to soften as she looked at my brother. She looked at him, and she began to sing softly, ‘Away in a manger, no crib for a bed . . .’ And she went on singing like that, just to us. My brother looked up; he was startled at first, and then he reached out his hand to this woman’s hand and they both started singing together, ‘The stars in the bright sky looked down where he lay . . .’ They sang loud and everybody started to join in and a young man unpacked a guitar, and the bus driver took out a harmonica, and they began to sing carols. They sang so many carols that anyone had ever heard.

“And that’s how we spent Christmas Eve together. Then we all settled down.

“I had a card in my pocket with my uncle’s telephone number on it; my mother had pinned it inside my pocket. And the bus driver came and asked me, did I have a phone number for the people who were going to meet us? So I gave him that card. My mother had pinned it there because I was always losing stuff. And the bus driver went off to call my aunt. I didn’t hear from him for a while, but then he called my name. I was just thinking that I’d love to talk to my Aunt Alice and he called me; he said, ‘Your Aunt Alice is on the phone.’ So I went to the phone and Aunt Alice was so calm, and she said, ‘You know, your parents are out right now; they’re at church with your cousins. But they’ll be back and they’ll come to get you in the morning, so you stay where you are right now and everything’s going to be all right and they’ll be there to get you once the snow ploughs have been.’

“I felt pretty good after that, I wasn’t too worried; my brother was a little bit upset but feeling better with all the carol singing. So we snuggled down together like everybody else did, leaning against each other or on the floor or up against the counter, on tables, and we all slept that night of Christmas Eve.

“ next morning, I knew my parents were coming to get us so we started saying goodbye to everybody because they started boarding the bus. It was about 11 o’clock and the snow ploughs had gone through. They were boarding the bus, and the last one to go was Mrs. Mills. She came up to us and looked at us. She said, ‘Boys, I’ll never forget you at this Christmastime; you’ve been my Christmas present and I will always remember you like that.’ She kissed us both on the forehead and she boarded the bus and I never saw her again.

“That night, we were settled comfortably at Aunt Alice’s. We were around the fire and we were going to start singing carols, and I told my Dad the whole story. I said to him, ‘I wonder what she meant by that being her Christmas present? We really didn’t give her anything. What could she have meant by that?’ He said, ‘Son, I don’t really know, but it could be that somehow you brought her a gift that she would treasure always, something that we don’t always know about. You see, a true gift, we don’t always know what a true gift is from the outside. But from the inside it’s something really special, it carries more value than the apparent substance of the gift. So,’ he said, ‘it may have been your cute faces together that she saw or it may have been that you were not afraid of her, or that you liked her and you sang with her; any of those things. But just know that the gift you gave her was precious and I want you to hold that gift in your heart and make that your gift to me also.’

“Then they all gathered around the piano, and I joined them but I was thinking about Mrs. Margaret Mills and how much I missed her and what a lovely, lovely voice came out of that strange body. And I was thinking, wherever she is I hope that she’s with someone who likes her singing as much as I did.”

You know, Christmas is an inner story, isn’t it? The Christmas experience is an inner experience, where it’s the Christmas of your life and not just the Christmas of everybody’s but a Christmas of your life. It can be that. We’ve all had different experiences of Christmas but may this be for you the Christmas of your life, where you recognize and feel and experience the Christ born in you this Christmas. Feel that, and know that. The Christ will, literally, be born into your awareness and will become a part of your consciousness and a vital part of your humanity from this time on.

God is Blessing You, Right Now!

Merry Christmas!

Rev. Alan a. Rowbotham

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Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham, a Unity minister for over thirty-seven years, invites you to subscribe to his free inspirational newsletter, “Spiritual Solutions,” at Spiritual Solutions. Feel free to share this article in its entirety with a friend.

If you’d like to receive “Rich Words,” featuring weekday inspirational quotes, you can subscribe at Rich Words.

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As we remember our traditions and take part in family customs, or perhaps see our children involved in a Christmas pageant, it recreates in us each year a true spirit of Christmas.

The very first Christmas pageant was put together by St. Francis of Assisi. He put on a Christmas pageant with real people and real animals, and the people it is said were so blessed by this that they spontaneously burst into joyous song. And that started community singing or carol singing. So both the pageant and the carol singing originally came from St. Francis of Assisi. 

We think about all the traditions that come together at Christmas and we sometimes wonder where they come from. Like the Christmas tree for instance. The Christmas tree originally, for the Germans, symbolized the Garden of Eden, because it came from a play called the Paradise Baum which meant “The Tree of Paradise.” It was a medieval play. The Tree of Paradise became the Christmas tree.

At that time the play was enacted outdoors, then later suppressed and the people were not allowed to perform the play. So they took the tree, instead of having it outdoors, they took the fir trees indoors. And that’s when it began to become the Christmas tree. At first there was nothing on the tree; it was just a live tree that was taken indoors to remind people of the evergreen, the life that was always there in the midst of the darkest winter.

But is said that Martin Luther was walking through the countryside one evening; it was a dark yet starry and moonlit night and the moon was shining on the snow-tipped branches of the evergreen trees. He was so taken by this scene that when he arrived home he tried to explain it and have his family envision that scene, and in order to help them envision the scene he lighted candles and attached them to the limbs of the fir tree that was in the house.

That’s how the tradition started of having lights on the Christmas tree. We don’t have just regular candles on Christmas trees anymore. You know why? Well, in the early days when that happened there were a few fires.

When I was young and growing up in England we used candles; we had little clips that fitted on the branches of the tree and the candles slotted into little metal cups. The candles were about the size of birthday cake candles and were usually spiraled and they fit into the cups, and we lit the candles on the tree at Christmas time. Of course, later on actual lights were used on the Christmas tree.

So the Christmas tree is a very special symbol for us all, isn’t it? And mistletoe. Think about mistletoe and you may wonder where the tradition of that came from. Well the beginning for that was way back in the first and second centuries. The Druid priests considered the mistletoe holy, and on the fifth day after the close of the winter solstice they would go out and use a golden knife to cut the mistletoe off the holy oak trees. And they would distribute the sprigs of mistletoe to the people in the village. The mistletoe was said to be sacred and it would keep away all of the woodland spirits or evil spirits that might enter their home. So they would hang it over the door and it would keep those evil spirits out.

Do you know where they word “mistletoe” came from? The mistletoe came from an old Anglo-Saxon word or two words, “mistel” and “tan.” At first it was called “misteltan.” And “mistel” simply means “dung.” And “tan” means “twig.” So it was the dung which the birds dropped that grew on the twig. At first, instead of thinking of just seeds that were passing through the birds, they thought the birds actually brought the berries that were there.

Soon it grew into a greater symbol. In Scandinavia they had the idea of the mistletoe representing fertility.

They had a goddess of fertility called Freya and a god of the summer sun called Balda. Freya rescued Balda and brought about his resurrection through the mistletoe. So they recognized it had life-giving powers; that it brought humans back to life. In Scandinavia, too, they hung it over the door frames to keep evil spirits out and to bring life into the house. So it has a long history.

The Romans also recognized it as a symbol of peace and whenever they came to a place where there was mistletoe in the oak trees in winter, they would lay down their arms if they were facing enemies and declare a truce between them.

Mistletoe gradually came to symbolize love and of course after that there came the kissing under the mistletoe which is an inevitable conclusion and a lovely practice.

Holly was also recognized as a very much prized but prickly decoration for doorways and windows, especially on doorways because it was said to either keep evil spirits out or snag them before they could get in. It was a sort of like fly-paper for fairies or something.

There was also a legend that the crown of thorns that Jesus wore at the crucifixion was made up of holly leaves, and that’s how the holly wreaths came about for us in our day.

So as we look at all these things, we think “Wow, let’s look at all the other symbols that are there.” One we don’t use so much in the United States is the wassail bowl. Have you ever heard of that? The wassail bowl really originated with the Anglo-Saxons round about the fifth century. At their feasts they used to pass around the golden cup of mead or wine, and they would salute each other with the words, “Was Hale!” And it meant “Behold!”

So it became the wassail bowl, and they used to fill it with wine and other magical ingredients and carry it around to all the households of the village so that everyone could drink of that wassail bowl.

The Christmas stocking and the idea of hanging it on the mantelpiece, the fireplace, was at first a stocking hung on the fireplace to dry. And the story goes that St. Nicholas came by and accidentally dropped a bag of gold in the stocking; and it took off from there.

The children of Amsterdam used to place wooden shoes or clogs inside the fireplace so that when St. Nick looked down he could see the shoes there, and if he saw them they were sure to get goodies. Later they purposefully substituted socks or stockings for the shoes because the shoes were not flexible but the stockings were and they would hold a lot more goodies.

The Yule log comes from Scandinavia, a dark country and very cold in the winter time. At the beginning of the winter season the men would go out and get the biggest log they could find and drag it back to the baronial hall where they would put it in the fireplace and light it; it would stay lighted all winter because they would keep feeding that log.

The tradition was that the Yule log would be lighted from the Yule log of the previous year, so the fire would always be going. The word comes from the Feast of Juul; that’s where we get our Yuletide from.

Where did Christmas presents or Christmas gifts start? Well, long ago, gifts used to be exchanged at New Year; it was a pagan custom. Then the early priests suggested it would be better at Christmastime since it was a time of goodwill and looking after the poor. So they started to go around collecting money and jewelry in boxes for distribution to the poor. At first they called those boxes “priests boxes,” the gradually began to call them presents. Then as the Christmas tree came along, the presents were either on or under the tree.

Christmas cards were started in about 1846 by a man named Joseph Kundle, He made them out of a lithograph plate and hand-painted them. It didn’t come into vogue until 1862, some years later, and then it all started off. Now today, in the United States alone, we send more than two billion Christmas cards every year.

The greeting “Merry Christmas!” comes from England. In the olden days on Christmas morning the villagers would throw their windows open and would call out to their neighbors “Merry Christmas!” And it sort of captures the jollity of the whole Christmas season and all the traditions, doesn’t it, and brings it all together.

So we say today, “Merry Christmas!”

We become filled with the spirit of Christmas because all of those traditions have carried us right up to this point today. And Christmas is a time of light, isn’t it? We look around and we see the beautiful lights. My wife, Kathryn, and I love to ride around the area at night and look at the Christmas lights.

The Christmas trees have a sort of enchantment for children and adults alike. And when we see a wreath, either in a window or on a door, we know that it proclaims a holiday.

We have a sense of upliftment when we see all of these decorations. And surely, Christmas itself, the idea of Christmas and what it’s all about is a time of light, isn’t it? Where the star shines brightly and the heavens are radiant with light, and the whole season is bright with the sense of welcoming the Christ child. It’s a time of light. It’s a time of love. It’s a time of giving.

One person said that “Christmas is whenever and wherever someone is touched by that ever-living and ever-giving Spirit of God, so that their hearts are opened with the expression of unselfish love.”

So, Merry Christmas to you!

Remember, God is Blessing You, Right Now!

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Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham, a Unity minister for over thirty-seven years, invites you to subscribe to his free inspirational newsletter, “Spiritual Solutions,” at Spiritual Solutions. Feel free to share this article in its entirety with a friend.

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Karma explains everything in one’s world: suffering, blessings, sorrow, and joy. According to karma, nothing one does is ever lost; nothing is unaccounted for; nothing is forgotten, discarded, or irrelevant. On the surface, it would appear to be the equivalent of the Western concept of “Whatsoever a man sow, that shall he also reap.” So the law of karma is seen to be simply a statement of the fundamental law of the Universe, one of absolute integrity.

However, the Eastern concept centers its attention chiefly on man’s past and ultimate destiny; there is little hope or pr