Search This Blog

Monday, December 23, 2013

The Christmas Star In Our Hearts

There is a night in most everyone's life when you look up into the vast expanse of the universe and gaze into the night sky as if hypnotized. It appears to be an endless dome of impenetrable darkness broken and splattered with billions of glittering sparkles of light. Some are extraordinarily bright and visually staccato and others are so faint we are not sure we even see anything.

At these moments we are like fish taking time to become aware of and to wonder about things above the surface of the water, our known world of action and reality. It is as if we are trying to reach beyond our limits or everyday understanding to fathom something we know is there, but which defies our known, familiar, and collectively agreed upon logic.

Yet, there it is, that night sky, so vast and deep, filled with brilliant darkness and wonder. These are moments in which we realize that there is very little that we truly understand. The night sky, therefore, has come to represent the reality of the mysteries of life.

Harry Emerson Fosdick had this perspective about life as we are experiencing it:

     "I would rather live in a world where my life is surrounded by mystery than live in a world so small that my mind could comprehend it."

Sir James Jeans suggests in his book, The Mysterious Universe that "The universe begins to look more like a great thought than like a great machine."

Just as we can observe the stars on a clear night, we can also place ourselves in the sky and observe ourselves looking up. What we can imagine from this opposite viewpoint is equally as vast and unknown as the night sky. We see land and sea and mountains, fields, plants, animals, and humans. Why are we creatures with the ability to reason, remember, act, feel, cry, and laugh the way we do?

Why we are what we are seems another of the unknowns of our universe. Therefore, we are one with the universe in its mystery, if nothing else. Being part of the unknown, however, is not at all satisfying. We naturally yearn for a solid place to put our understanding, our feet of faith. It is as if we have only quicksand abilities on our own, but will not be satisfied until our understanding rests on firm ground.

Surely we are greater than the unknown, because we feel and we do understand, expect, and remember. Such feelings and reactions come from something. They represent an appreciation and sensitivity to events, to order, to discipline, and to those intangible qualities called kindness, friendship, and love.

We can communicate with others and with the universe. When we communicate with the universe we are communicating with the unknowable God of creation and life. Although our thoughts and conclusions are heavily influenced by our experiences and our human intelligence, they are at the same time part of the absolute Truth of the universe which speaks to us in moments of inspiration, meditation, prayer, and selfless consideration of others.

Being part of universal intelligence does not mean we encompass all of it, but it does mean we are in harmony with all of it. Norman Cousins wrote, "I may not embrace or command this universal order, but I can be at one with it,  for I am of it." No wonder then, that Truth is recognized or sensed when we are exposed to it or when we seek it.

Stars: Revelations of Truth that are as yet remote. The human mind cannot conceive the wonders and immensity of the universe of stars in the heavens. The star that pointed the way for the Wise Men to find Jesus was in the east. It symbolizes our inner conviction of our divine sonship. When the Jesus ego first appears in the subconsciousness it is a mere speck of light, a "star in the east."
                                                                        --Metaphysical Bible Dictionary

We can cooperate with the Truth as we sense it, or we can try to deny it, but we cannot change it, so matter what. Truth will always light our way, even if we try to shrink it to the size of a star in a huge black sky of human efforts. Our star may become faint, but it will not go out, because it is the Truth of the known and unknown. The Christmas star is God's promise that the Christ spirit is always ready to be born in the hearts of all people as soon as they are ready to nurture it.

Christ is the divine-idea man. Jesus is the name that represents an individual expression of the Christ idea. Christ is the only begotten Son of God, or the one complete idea of perfect man in Divine Mind. He is the embodiment of all divine ideas, such as intelligence, life, love, substance, and strength. This Christ, or perfect-man idea existing eternally in Divine Mind, is the true, spiritual, higher self of every individual.
                                                                                --Metaphysical Bible Dictionary

When seen from the metaphysical viewpoint, the Christmas story is actually a story of Godly tough love. The perfection of God's love and peace is our individual and collective spiritual heritage, whether or not we want to accept such perfection. Harmony is natural, inevitable, and the only path that supports life. The more we reject love and peace in our dealings with others and our world, the more severely we will be rebuffed back towards love and peace as the only ultimate solutions.

This is not something we can control, or even influence. All we can do is observe it, accept it, and cooperate with it, or suffer. This is the solid foundation on which we can stand. This is the Truth for world history, for the evolution of societies, as well as for our personal lives. The path of love and peace is the only option that supports life. This is the ever-present Christmas star in our hearts.