As Christmas approaches, it feels natural to reflect how different my views about the meaning of this holiday are from those of my childhood and, for that matter, a good part of my adult life, too.

When young, Christmas meant gifts; specifically, getting them. My brothers, sister, and I would spend countless energy looking for the presents our parents bought and hid, imagining our treasures and delighting in the excitement of getting something…anything. We were a low-middle-class family and presents were rare.

It always seemed my parents would sleep late on Christmas day on purpose. We weren’t allowed to open any gifts until we were all together. One year my younger sister and I used her very loud tick tock toy clock in an attempt to wake them up, but to no avail. We simply had to wait. What torture!

As I grew older, I still focused on what I received but added to the mix was a fear that I might not be giving enough based on what I thought I was getting from someone else. Emphasis remained on the exchange of external material things and a sort of “give to get” or quid pro quo mentality. Of course this thinking was fueled, reinforced, and exalted by the intense onslaught of advertising. Christmas redefined to increase profit; the financial kind, with guilt thrown in for healthy measure.

The impetus for this particular holiday, the birth of Jesus Christ, was all but lost in the busyness of upholding and maintaining a kind of collective unconscious. I frequently experienced Christmas as stressful, depleting, and weeks to endure and exit. Others feel similarly, I know, as evidenced by a recent exchange I overhead at the Dollar Store the other day.

“Happy Holidays!”

“Oh, I can’t wait for them to be over,” the clerk lamented.

“I know what you mean,” was the customer’s quick response. She left the store telling her companion, “seems like a lot of people feel the same way.”

As my interest and desire for a kinder, more loving and peaceful way of living in the world developed, through contemplation and practice of the principles presented in A Course in Miracles, my view of the meaning of Christmas and how to honor its message has changed dramatically.

Most of us are familiar with the Christmas story as presented in Book of Luke, in the Christian Bible’s New Testament. This event, we’re told, took place over two thousand years ago, and is one that has continuously shaped human history. The story of Christ’s birth in the Book of Luke has been the basis of many interpretations, beliefs, rituals, organizations, and conflicts. I would like to share my interpretation and the day-to-day, very real, tangible, and positive impact it has on my life.

My Catholic upbringing taught that Jesus was born as the only Son of God and that he died for our sins. I no longer see the story that way. For me, the birth and life of Jesus is meant to inspire, encourage, and teach how to find, honor and make visible the Christ within us. In my belief system, Christ means God, or love, manifested through the individual. In the words of A Course in Miracles, “teach only love for that is what you are.”

Here are some ideas that help me personalize the Christmas message and make it relevant throughout the year.

• The humility of Jesus’ birth represents the still, small voice within me, humbly and patiently waiting for me to seek, knock, or ask.
• I have “no room at the inn” when I lack the capacity, acceptance, or willingness to listen being consumed with the external world.
• My mind is the manger, or vessel, that holds the remembrance of my divine source.
• I am as the wise men when I seek to find and pay homage to the Christ within me, and trust my “star,” or yearnings of my heart. I give the gift of love when joining with this Truth.
• I attack Christ when, like Herod, I let ego put me in a place of fear by judging or holding grievances against another or myself.
• By consciously choosing to listen to the voice of love, I purify my thoughts thereby giving birth and life to Christ as Mary, the mother of Jesus, so beautifully represents.
• Celebrating Jesus’ birth helps me to celebrate my own birth, or awakening to my true identity. Through me, God’s love is expressed (or repressed!).
• One of Jesus’ strongest representations is as a light in the darkness of fear, ignorance, and guilt that encourages, inspires, and teaches me to emulate His work.

As A Course in Miracles teaches, “It is in your power to make this season holy, for it is in your power to make the time of Christ be now.”

May you awaken to the peace and joy of Christmas now, and all through the year.

December 17, 2016

Marguerite LaDue