Most years as I approach the Feast of the Nativity, I feel fairly “emotioned” out.  This year seems to be no exception.  There’s been a lot going on on the home front.  It was good to read this meditation from Henri Nouwen, to be reminded that celebration and thanksgiving really are not about emotions and feelings, but about something way beyond them. 

Somehow I realized that songs, music, good feelings, beautiful liturgies, nice presents, big dinners, and many sweet words do not make Christmas.  Christmas is saying “yes” to a hope based on God’s initiative, which has nothing to do with what I think or feel.  Christmas is believing that the salvation of the world is God’s work and not mine.  Things will never look just right or feel just right.  If they did, someone would be lying . . . . But it is into this broken world that a child is born who is called Son of the Most High, Prince of Peace, Savior.  (The Road to Daybreak)