chestnuts roasting on an open fire...

Nat King Cole...I just spent some time with him this morning. Just for the record...he didn't die...he lives on through his matchless music. I dropped the girls off at school this morning and on my way to work his voice moved through my antenna, into my reciever, through the wiring, out the speakers and into my ears. I hope I do something in my life that outlives me. Honor belongs to the man who is dead but never dies. I've been giving a fair bit of thought to that whole line of logic.

I love the Christmas season because something transcendant happens inside of me that I can't explain. I know very few things that bring me so much wonder as the sounds of Christmas music and the festive decorations that abound everywhere you turn your eye. It is only intensified with the Chronicles of Narnia movie set to hit the theaters on Dec. 9th. I saw that trailer at the movies not too long ago...I just about wept like a little girl. This season just brings some unexplainable joy to my heart...and the joy is found in the impossibility of explanation.

I wish more ineffable stuff happened in my life. But alas, almost everything has a logical explanation. Even as a pastor I'm amazed with how little I brush up against the supernatural. Most of what happens around me and in me is pretty much the lump sum of my effort+time+talent+spiffiness+a spoonful of personality= fruit of ministry. I rarely feel wowed by something, taken back, speechless, breathless, amazed, wonderstruck.

That is why I love this season...it awakens, beckons. It defies definition. It resists a simple recipe. It escapes explanation. It rebels against reason. It tugs at your heart in the lonely hours. It nudges places inside that haven't been touched before. It stirs stagnant waters that once were alive with anticipation. It arrests affection that hasn't been captured by anything for no telling how long. That's why I love Nat King, Bing Crosby, even Amy Grant (if you can believe that) this time of year...because it isn't about them...they only spinkle the pixy dust over the air waves casting a spell on my heart that leaves me spellbound. Everything around me feels enchanted. Things that laid still move. Things that were silent speak. Things that were once cold become strangely warm. I like that.

I really like that.