However and wherever you celebrate Christmas this year, whether with us at Bethesda-by-the-Sea in Palm Beach or at another spiritual home, please know that you yourself are a wonder of God’s love.
Video: Enjoy West Palm Beach’s 700-ton Sandi Christmas Tree
Sandi, the world’s only 700-ton holiday sand tree in West Palm Beach features a multi-colored light show is from 6 to 10 p.m. through Dec. 31, 2023.
One of the great things about living in South Florida in December is the ability to take morning walks along the beach. I mean, technically I could have done this when I lived in New England, but it would have been a lot less pleasant. Jack Frost nipping at your nose, and all that. Frankly, I really don’t need to see my breath ever again.
But I love taking our dogs for walks on the beach and watching the sunrise. Like snowflakes, no two sunrises are alike. The interplay between light and clouds, horizon and sky leads to infinite possibilities and a kaleidoscope of ever-changing hues. If you ever wonder whether there is, in fact, a God, I highly recommend daily walks along the beach.
One of the things I can’t help but notice is the number of people holding up cell phones to capture the moment. At one level, I get it. We want to relive special moments, or what I would consider glimpses of glory, over and over again. Of course, despite all the advances in cellphone technology, our amateur images can’t possibly capture the wonder of creation. They can’t recreate what your eyes see and what your heart experiences when the sun breaks the plane on the horizon. I want to yell in my best grumpy old-man voice, “Put down your phones! Look at the beauty that surrounds you!” I don’t do this, though.
One of the great spiritual gifts is the joy of wonder. Not trying to capture an image of wonder, but simply the wonder itself. Christmas is a season of wonder. I don’t mean this in the “It’s the most wonderful time of the year” kind of way. Because that just makes me think of a car commercial. Nissan, I think.
But to revel in the “wonders of his love,” as we sing in Joy to the World, is at the heart of the nativity story. The shepherds quake, the angels sing, and the world rejoices as God enters the world in human form. For Christians, the Son of Righteousness shines brighter than even the sun itself. And all we can do is gaze in wide wonder as the Christ child is born anew in our hearts and in our world.
However and wherever you celebrate Christmas this year, whether with us at Bethesda-by-the-Sea in Palm Beach or at another spiritual home, please know that you yourself are a wonder of God’s love. The same God who created the heavens and the earth, the moon and sun and stars, also created you and loves you with deep and reckless abandon.
The Rev. Tim Schenck serves as Rector of the Episcopal Church of Bethesda-by-the-Sea in Palm Beach.
