For the past couple of weeks I have had an image in my head and heart that has stuck with me so strongly that I can close my eyes and see it. The temperature had been down in the teens and twenties for over a week, so crawling out from under the covers at 3 a.m. wasn't exactly something that filled my heart with glee, but when a nearly 100 lb dog wakes you up to say she needs to go out it doesn't matter if you're warm and cozy or not, you get up and you take her! The mess for ignoring her just isn't worth it. Anyway, grumbling to myself I pulled my bathrobe around me, slid my feet into slippers, and with Tibbi dancing and whining her way down the hall, I shuffled my way after her, grumbling out the ground rules about hurrying as I went. As I made my way down the hall I saw a glow of light from the living room and started to wonder if I'd left the outside light on when I went to bed earlier.
I pulled open the deck door, and the last shadows of sleep left my eyes and my head, for the glorious sight that was waiting for me chased it away. The full moon was shining overhead, so bright in the sky that the entire yard, usually masked in shadows and darkness, was daylight clear, the stars scattered across the velvet sky twinkling and dancing in the air that shimmered with expectation. The brilliant light glinted off of the frozen crystals of ice that turned the earth to a diamond crusted treasure, and in its numbing beauty took my breath away, even as it hung frozen in the air in front of me. Accompanying this heavenly work of art was a silence so profound, so total, that it was as if the earth was itself holding its breath out of reverence for perfection of the moment. I forgot to be cold, I forgot to breathe, I just wanted to stand there with my arms wrapped around myself absorbing the moment, for on the edge of my thoughts an insight was forming.
The memories of Silent Night hummed through my head and I realized that the author could very well have been singing of just such a sight and silence as this - the very reverence in the hush describing what could very well have been the emotional tidal wave that the shepherds must have felt on that holy night so long ago as the angels sang to them of the arrival of the King of Kings. My heart overflowed for what felt like a very long time, but what must have been only moments. Tibbi finished her business and hurried back up onto the deck, and with one last glance at the astonishing and soul feeding display provided by God to bless my heart and remind me of what was most important not just during Christmas, but all year long, I returned to bed, falling asleep with the sound of carols singing in my heart, secure in the knowledge that God was watching out for my family wherever they may have been in that moment, and that He, the painter of such beauty, was in control and loving each of us as we prepare to celebrate the birth of our Lord.
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