I listen to the Christmas carols and recall times early in my life when this music sounded like home and peace and hope. Those are good memories, and I wish everyone could remember those holidays with a smile. But I know that is not the case for those who experienced painful moments during the season of Christmas and New Year’s.

“Silent Night” was often the song that was played during the candlelight services on Christmas Eve. I can still see the flames brightening the faces of friends and family who had gathered for the evening worship time. Sometimes it was held at 11:00, so when we left the church it was already Christmas Day. Snow would often greet us as we were heading to our car.

I learned as the years rolled along that the holidays were often marked by strife at home and abroad. I thought of the men and women in uniform around the world, far from their families as they defended our freedoms. And then I became one of those men, sitting in a small hut built with ammunition crates on a dark hill in Vietnam. More about that later.

It’s that time of year again. Time to remember. And pray. And try to maintain a sense of peace amid all the business and clamor of the season.

I’ll be blogging these next few days as I attempt to describe emotions that seem to arise every December. Words often fail to capture our deepest thoughts and feelings. So a lot of what I’ll post will be beyond words, if that makes any sense at all.

The year that is ending was filled with good activities and many challenges. I look forward to sharing the journey with you.

As we approach the celebration of our nation’s founding, I need to share with you what I believe to be one of the greatest threats to our democracy I’ve ever seen. It’s called Christian Nationalism, the ideology that endorses the supremacy of one faith over all others and the imposition of Christian beliefs and moral codes on all 330 million of us. To illustrate the dire need to combat this strategy of the radical minority, I draw a quote from a well-known political leader:

“The national government will maintain and defend the foundations on which the power of our nation rests. It will offer strong protection to Christianity as the very basis of our collective morality. Today Christians stand at the head of our country. We want to fill our culture again with the Christian spirit. We want to burn out all the recent immoral developments in literature, in entertainment, and in the press- in short, we want to burn out the poison of immorality which has entered into our whole life and culture as a result of liberal excess during recent years.”

Adolf Hitler. Radio address to the German people on July 22, 1933.

I am always humbled at this time of year. The God of the Universe chose to become one of us. Who can grasp it; who can comprehend it? Those who claim to know exactly how it happened bother me. I hear nothing but arrogance in their claims. This is a mystery. Perhaps it is THE Mystery. “The Incarnation” is what the theologians call it.

All I can do is pray for the words to shed a little light on my finite mind. Some of those words came to me this morning from a man named A. W. Tozer, who was a pastor and writer of another generation. In one of his devotional thoughts written for this holy season here is what he said:

“The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us…The majesty on high was the baby Jesus once cradled in the manger straw. Taking a body of humiliation, He was still the Creator who made the wood of that manger, made the straw, and was Creator of all the beasts that were there. In truth, He made the little town of Bethlehem and all that it was. He also made the star that lingered over the scene that night.”

Impossible to understand, but too wondrous to ignore. Tonight is a time to bow and to worship. To trust that the story is true and that humanity has hope. All because of this miracle that happened two thousand years ago.

I cling to this like a Marine swept into storm-driven waves and finding driftwood that saves my life.