Where did Christmas go? The childlike wonder of Christmas decorations, stories of Santa and the North Pole, and swirling imagery of 19th century family love and fellowship in a snowed-in cottage in the woods, complete with figgy pudding (what is that, anyway?). It all seems to have been pushed out with the cares of this world.

I went to a Christmas light drive-through tonight, and there was mostly just emptiness. Here and there were flashes of amazement (like a moving river of blue lights), but it's like imagination died within. We also saw a guy's front yard who had a multi-level train set with a town built around it. When I was a lad, I would've been all over imagining what it would be like to live in that town far-off somewhere. I would've thought of weekends spent in the chilly cabin at the top of a gondola lift that went over a large waterfall, or worshipping in the church with a handful of other people--the sum total of the town--whose names I each knew individually. But instead, all I noticed were the odd relative scale of the rocks making up the waterfall, the real-world advertisements on the train (curse commercialism!), and the technical details that went into creating the display.

Christ was right-on with the thorns of this world choking the seed in Luke 8:14, only the world doesn't just choke the life out of His good news, but also the very essence of life itself.

There must be a better way. There has to be a way to keep the childlike wonder, to keep a pure faith. We cannot forsake imagination, wonder, and purity for anything: it's as part of a balanced world view as is holding truth and wisdom. That way is Christ. In Him are all of these things: in His character, in His life, in His death and resurrection, in His creation, in His heavenly home. There is more than enough there to spur our creativity, and it's all reality! I'm rediscovering that in the Chronicles of Narnia, and loving it. This same imagination drives us to love one another in purity, in Christ.

And so I have to grow in Him: first, with a continual purifying from the worries this world brings; and then, holding onto that constancy and wholeness in Him, integrating it into every moment of living, to glorify Him. I also must exercise creative muscles, and see them as good. I can't have everyone else do all of my imagining for me (in books and other media).

And most of all, let me not forget what You have shown, Lord.

Words and pictures copyright slav2emoshns