A Thousand Reasons: Canto VII {Holiday Special}

Mornings are a great time to examine yourself. Today I find myself a procrastinator, from a mixture of not trying and not feeling. So I've buckled myself in and am putting up another Canto, after far too long an absence. This one is longer, a pile created over the holidays and too long letting myself lag.

{43} For the willingness of Heaven. I had a fairly obvious revelation, while singing a Christmas Hymn. It occurred to me what the angels must have known, to declare "Peace on earth, good will to men." The Incarnation itself doesn't merit "peace on earth." The angels must have known what came next: the sacrifice. The Beloved of Heaven had to die.
      They knew, and yet they sung praise.
      I can't help but wonder if any of them were crying.

{44} Thank You for hot mugs of tea—the warmer of the hands, throat, and insides: gentle warrior against the winter chill.

{45} Thank You, Elyon, for embraces: the easiest language to speak and hear amidst darkness and thorns.
       "I'm here. You're not alone in this. And that, at least, is something."

{46} For strategy games—a place to sit back and chance your minds against each other in the safe, merry realm of good sport.

{47} Thank God for His goodness—to be always the Deity sitting by our side. Not because He is small, but because He is good. The only God and terrifying in His Holy right, but right beside us all the same, with that smile none dare look upon.
       "Safe? Who said anything about safe? Of course he's not safe, but he is good."*

{48} For Christmas lights, which twinkle in the tree branches like little advent fairies.

{49} Thank God for the ability of vicarious experience through reading—the gift of human imagination that can soak in a story and feel with its characters. There is nothing quite like the racing pulse, warm fuzzies, or ache of another's feelings. Real or fiction. Whether is is Mary mother of Christ or Orual**, they seep into our consciousness and never completely leave, even when the book is closed. And we are never quite the same.

{50} For Advent: the season to remind how waiting makes things all the sweeter.

{51} For gifts—the chance to give and receive them.

{52} Praise Him for the cozy fireside feel: an atmosphere that lulls anxieties to sleep with crackling flames. And how that calm is further soothed by stories, that ancient fireside tradition carried on through words on a page or read aloud.

{53} Thank God for Christmas stories. That particular genre plays so well in the air being read aloud, and has a tendency to contradict the condemnation of man which is our healthy medicine for pride the rest of the year. We might overdose on it, if not for such tales of reprieve.

{54} Thank You, Elyon, for children—little bundles of opportunity. They are our chance to see again the world through eyes not yet grim or bitterly disillusioned. Through their excitement we can see the reminder of our own childhood ecstasies, back when presents under the tree were a sort of magic, regardless of whether parents or a fat old saint conjured them.

{55} Thank Heaven for New Years—days to start over and begin again.

{56} For promises to self: chances to dream with conviction.






*C.S. Lewis, speaking through Mr. Beaver in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.

**Another C.S. Lewis reference :) Opual is the main character in his book Till We Have Faces, and since my first time through that particular book I have continued to find her one of the most relatable characters in all of literature.