The play of morning light on the unlit tree and the master violinist behind it put a fine point on something I’ve been thinking about. Preparing for a Christmas gathering last week, I pulled out the red accordion file I’ve used for decades to store recipes and tasting notes. Too tattered finally to hold them and failing my attempt to tape it for an even longer life, it spilled a hundred memories. I told a forever friend who stopped early on Saturday to visit that it was like revisiting treasure.
In every tucked-away recipe or note was a reminder of the gift of either the occasion or the host or hostess creating it. I’ve been taught a thousand lessons by them that play forward even now.
I know from hard experience that when we exercise our gifts on behalf of others, we are renewed while those who receive them are enlarged. But, sometimes, finding a dark corner is easier than continuing to give.
December, Advent story and the magic of Christmas in one, is here along with struggling marriages, struggling relationships, struggling finances, struggling businesses, struggling health, struggling recovery, struggling hopes. When we hold ourselves together with duct tape, something breaks.
The Master, who makes a masterpiece of all of us as we use our gifts in love for others, is unfailing hope and an invitation of strength that we might, in the middle of every difficulty, play on.
