The Second Day of Christmas: Practicing the Presence of God

We have this funny idea about learning: once we have learned something, then we know it.  Our whole educational system is built on this idea of knowledge as acquisition of something.  But it is profoundly wrong, and the Church has known for millennia that it is misconceived. We are not just disembodied minds, we are instead profoundly in, and of, our bodies.  And for our bodies to learn something requires regular and frequent practice. 

Hannah teaches us this daily with her need for routine and repetition.  Evening in particular has a going-to-bed routine that involves my carrying her and dancing gently while we listen to country music.  We do this almost every night.  Much more regularly than we manage to include her in evening prayer.  And it not only gets her to sleep, it helps Hannah and I stay in connection, to learn about each other, and to practice our relationship.  As I danced her to sleep this Christmas, she held onto my arm and I was struck that she too was a child of God, that I was holding the presence of God – God with us – in my arms. 

The Church has for millennia offered rituals and seasons that provide us with the practice we need to learn about ourselves, about each other, and about the Divine. The Twelve Days of Christmas should be such a time of practice.  It is the time of “God with us” and a time to practice seeing the presence of God with, and within, us. 

Practice

So choose today a person (or some thing) you know well, perhaps someone (or something) you see everyday.  Then in your imagination, or even when you see them, practice seeing the Divine presence in them.  Welcome them as God with us. See them as God with us, if only for a moment.  It is a practice that bears repeating and that can bring us deeper in our journey to find Christmas – God with us.