When I wrote my first book, I was wrestling with a question that baffled me: Why do we humans continue to live using the resources of more than one planet even when we know we have only one planet to live on? Early on in the writing process, a recognition grew in me that not all humans did live this way. That, in fact, there are two macro-stories that guide human decisions and actions.
How can the new creation that is the framework for the birth story of Jesus frame our lives today?
Jesus was born in Bethlehem, Judea. Christ is the name of a consciousness that transcends human birth. Jesus grew into that consciousness quickly. Whether we do it quickly or slowly, we can do it.
Christmas can bring beauty, romance, arousal of tender feelings, and new-found love. Yet, how much conversion to shared, OneEarth living happens. How many people left the systems oppressing life and ran to the systems of the evolving new creation that are regenerating life? The birth story of Jesus can do this. But Christmas? Not likely.