I've decorated my house just a little bit for Christmas. I have a skinny, scrawny fake bush of a tree that I bought last year in the week after Christmas -- $10 at Marshalls. It's too flimsy for ornaments, so I've hung a few of my favorites all around elsewhere in my livingroom. A lord aleaping, a feathered peacock, a silver star that says "hope."
I hold on to that notion. Hope. We hadn't felt that in a long time until Obama came on the scene, and feeling oh-so hopeful, we carried him on our shoulders to the White House, hoping, hoping, hoping that he could fix our broken country. He's trying. Trying to make hope more important than greed. Trying to make America what it was originally meant to be -- by the people, for the people. But greed is a powerful thing, apparently. Big business, big insurance, big guns. For some, it's a big disappointment, but I still feel the hope that brought Obama to Washington and I still think he'll make a difference, if only the greedy politicians will let him. Yes, we can.
My silver star of hope came from a friend who was battling colon cancer. She held onto hope as she suffered the affects of chemo and endured the hours, days, months of diminishing strength. She hoped it would all work -- we all hoped for that -- and it did. She's cancer-free now and stronger than ever. She's vibrant and grateful and oh-so alive. She's kind and gentle and loving. I doubt she's much familiar with greed, as she's a person who lives simply, struggling at times to make ends meet, as many of us do. She knows more of hope. Hope that her children and grandchildren can live in a world without greed? Hope that they will know the joy of life that she's found in her battle to hold onto it. She's a star, in my book. She's in that silver star that hangs from my diningroom lamp.
In the Christian tradition, there's hope in the star in the East. It shone over the desert to mark the place where Christ was born, and the shepherds and travelers followed that light, filled with hope. Filled with possibility. Good tidings of great joy.
Now to the Lord sing praises,
All you within this place,
And with true love and brotherhood
Each other now embrace;
This holy tide of Christmas
All others doth deface
Oh tidings of comfort and joy. Find them where you may and hold on to the hope that is there -- if only you look hard enough.
