Frost has stolen over even this mild coastal area of Edinburgh. Yesterday and today, the garden has been covered – and stayed covered nearly all day. The top of the shed was two tone at lunchtime, with one half normal colour, the other half still frosted over.
For those trying to get some sense that Christmas is nearly here, this and the warm coloured light are a reminder that it’s December, at least. Heading off to the shops today, part of an oratorio came back to me that I must have sung over twenty years ago, our first Christmas concert when our school choir had just formed, and we were getting used to proper four part singing.
“Hodie Christus natus est…Hodie salvator apparuit…” Kindly, the school laid on Latin too, at least while I was there, which helped me understand what I was singing. Today Christ is born, today the saviour appears…
Even though it’s not ‘today’, the opening song wouldn’t leave me while I was walking up, and back to the shops. Which is what it’s for, really – it’s the processional at the start and end of the piece.
As we get older, trying to find Christmas can get harder. We expect it to appear in our homes, our spirits. Some fortunate friends seem to retain the excitement, year after year.
The first year I was experiencing Christmas as a Christian, aged 19, I got some of that back. I was singing carols, not just because it was the time of year to sing them, but because I was excited about what they were telling me.
Perhaps today, for me at least, I need the processional to walk Christmas back into my life, my home. Going to Dan’s church in London, predominantly Afro-Caribbean, you sing the same song again and again until you are ‘walking’ in the truth of it. It becomes part of you.
So, today, I process out of the house with the news of Christmas, and process back home, bringing it back in with me.
Hopefully it will stay too. Like the best of guests at Christmas, there’s nothing like having someone who you want to be there. Even a brief visit fills up your heart again.