A generation of Christmases

This is the last Christmas during which our Myers family tree will shine its colorful lights upon the quiet wooded scene in the background. Shortly after the first of the year, Maxine and I are due to move to a retirement community a few miles north of here. No window in our new home will look out on a scene quite like this one.

We’ve celebrated thirty Christmases here. That’s about a generation. Our children grew up in this place, and are now in their own places, completely immersed in pursuing careers and nurturing their own families and friendships. We grew old here, and are now making the kind of move old people make on the way to the final good-bye. We are sad to leave this house, but eager to be settled in our new one. We look forward to making new friends and to exploring new experiences.

So, the generations come and go. The Jewish and the Christian scriptures are absolutely clear about that. No particular generation or time or era or epoch is the final—the forever—one. By God’s design, each is a way-station to the next, charged only with leaving this temporal world in better shape than it had been.

Maybe that’s why, at Jesus’s birth, the angels sang a song that embraces both the uncreated and the created, and that touches each human being. Glory to God in the highest, peace on earth, good will to all is a hymn that celebrates all universes and universalities, yet at the same time it is a tune as close to us as our next encounter with worldly reality.

Praise God, live in peace, and be good to all. That’s about it.

Okay, I can expand on it: Trust love, grace, and peace; live day-by-day truthfully and justly; and forgive yourself and one another when anyone screws up so you and they can get back to the high calling of trusting love, grace, and peace.

Our family will gather around this tree one last time in the days after Christmas. We have different ideas about glorifying God, but we are almost always very good to one another, and to the many other people we meet upon our various journeys. Because none of us claims perfection, we know a thing or two about forgiveness. The generation succeeding us contributes enormously to the common good as educators and musicians and neighbors and citizens. Something good started flourishing under this roof, whether we knew it or not at the time. We are grateful.

If you are used to looking for a Christmas card/letter from us, it’s not in the mail. You will hear from us when we are in our new home. Meantime, there’s this house to sell, and a move to negotiate.

So, one more time, from this home to yours, Merry Christmas to you…and to all.