Opinion column

The Elusive Magic of Christmas

James Knight enjoys the glimpses of magic provided by the Christmas season, but reminds us that they point us toward something even better.

Have you noticed how there are single hints of the magic of Christmas - a snowy scene where the glow of lights drapes across rooftops, a beautiful carol sung in a quiet chapel, wrapped presents waiting under the tree, a decorated window with a pretty street lamp in front of it, etc - but that every one thing is but a mere hint of an enchantment not fully captured in any single lived seasonal experience? The perceived instances of magic always point beyond themselves, like lanterns marking a path home.
 
Christmas is both a season of enjoyment, but also a deep longing for something more - as though the longing itself carries the faint echo of another world. We try to glimpse it from the corner of our eye, but it vanishes as soon as we turn our head to view it fully. But we’d find that any moment that seemed like arrival would merely increase the hunger for the real destination - like how the sound of a beautiful melody drifting through an open window only deepens our yearning to go inside and to be fully enveloped by the whole symphony. This is the essence of being made for another world, and why I think Christmas seems to evoke that more than any other season.
 
It’s also why the things we thought would quiet our desire end up awakening it even further. For every longing awakened in us is simply Christmas reminding us where we truly belong - in relationship with Christ. The season’s magic offers scattered hints - not to fully satisfy us here, but to enrich life on earth while beckoning us toward our true homecoming thereafter.
 
Image by Anja from Pixabay

James Knight is based in Norwich, and is a regular columnist for Christian community websites Network Norfolk and Network Ipswich. He also blogs regularly as The Philosophical Muser, including his Philosophical Muser You Tube channel, and contributes articles to UK think tanks The Adam Smith Institute and The Institute of Economic Affairs, as well as the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity (LICC). 

The views carried here are those of the author, not necessarily those of Network Norfolk, and are intended to stimulate constructive debate between website users.