Counting Miracles

Our daughter was due on Thanksgiving, which I thought was perfectly appropriate. I literally could not wait for her to be born. But wait I did; Sophie was two weeks late, consequently the longest part of my pregnancy fell to Advent. Waiting in joyful expectation took on profoundly tangible meaning. Every day I expected this miracle of new life. I yearned for her arrival on the scene. Patience was exacting.

One of the miracles of giving birth is the effect of a baby on our perception of time. Time slows to its most manageable capacity. Parents see all of life through the eyes of their child, with rapt wonder. Not since I was a child myself do I remember paying such intimate, close attention to the permeations of seasons.

Sophie came home to a warm and welcoming house with a Christmas tree already decorated. Every evening of her first few weeks of life she and I would wake in the darkest hour of the darkest days of the calendar, find our way into our living room by the beautifully lit tree and I would nurse her and read to her and tell her how unconditionally loved she is. We spent hours each night marveling at the magical quality of light cast off by hundreds of tiny white bulbs. I explained the significance and history of each unique and precious ornament, gifts especially of her great-grandmother and others eager to meet and welcome her to our wide, extended family.

Each Christmas she is reminded of how we spent her early days of life and each Christmas we engage in our tradition of counting Christmas miracles. Our favorite year, we counted 26 Christmas miracles, ranging from the perfect parking spot in a last mad dash of preparations, to the surprise visit of my brother and sister-in-law on a snowy Christmas morning, to the discovery of a bird’s nest deep within our Christmas tree.

We wait for the birth of Christ and the reign of God, impeccable responses to our deepest desires: for intimacy, love, reconciliation, meaning and an end to violence, poverty, illness and death. We are hard-wired for God and yearning for God is both joyful and excruciating.

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This Christmas, count miracles with someone you cherish. You will be surprised by how many you find as you allow time to slow down, allow yourself to be present to grace, and marvel at God’s presence in our human lives, reminding us always of what full, beautiful, transcendent life is yet to come.