During our recent move from one home to another, as we began the long process of unpacking our boxes, my husband came to me, holding sailing gloves in his hands, and said: "Where did you find these? I have been looking for these for years. I couldn't find them anywhere. For six years!"
A few minutes later, he came in holding a certain kind of power cord. "Where did you find this to pack it? I didn't know we still had it. I searched the house for it last year."
A song came instantly to mind, one I love, that I am almost certain was written by Starhawk. The lyrics: "Everything lost is found again, in a new form, in a new way. Everything hurt is healed again, in a new time, in a new day."
I love this simple, profound, honest song for the very miracle it eloquently, succinctly reminds us of. To me, it is the same miracle that is found in Christmas.
In the past few years, I have had two friends, young women, one with two daughters--an infant and a toddler--lose their spouses. I have had two other friends lose newborn children. I am sure you know of many, maybe even too many, who have lost things or people they treasure. What is the assurance of this season? As we lose the "sun," moving through the longest night of the year, what is the promise?
What is lost, will be found--in a new form. What is broken, will be restored--in a new way. It is the promise of the rose, as in the song Betty Midler sings, "Just remember, in the winter, far beneath the bitter snow, lies the seed, that with the sun's love, in the spring, becomes the rose."
One of my friends who lost her daughter at three days old has miraculously found the courage to conceive again. She will welcome a son in the early spring. One of my friends who lost her partner of nine years, has found love again; she did not think she could.
The "sun" rises. At Christmas, we think of it as the "son." They are the same. The power of restoration, finding what we have lost, is not an optimist's irrational pinning. It is a reality I see every day. Don't you?
If you are broken this season, lost or missing something lost--hold on! Your spring will come. Look for the new form, the new way, the new time, the new day. And for those who have already been given the blessing of that realization, for whom this idea is not a stranger but a comforting, true, reliable friend--rejoice!
Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Solstice, Blessed New Year, much love and peace,
Rev. Sam Wilde
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