These past few weeks there has been a superfluous amount of birds in our backyard, probably more now than there are even in the spring. From early morning to lunchtime they flit from branch to branch, into bushes, along the fence, and in old flowerpots, looking for seeds.
The benefit of this is obvious: we get to watch birds in the morning! It’s funny how small things like a bird’s flapping about in a puddle of melted snow on top of a dented hot tub lid can bring such entertainment.
But the smiles come with a price. The kitchen table from where we watch the birds is also our school table. So, unless I give in to a primordial need for doing schoolwork wrapped in blankets on the couch, we spend most of our day at that table. And some of us are easily distracted by the antics of winged creatures.
Thomas has taken a particular delight in all of this. Every five minutes he interrupts our lessons, jumping up and pointing out some bird he may recognize. It doesn’t help that a part of his Grade 4 science is the making of a bird book. So, up he pops from his seat, fluttering like the bird on the hot tub, and once again, we press “pause” on the math lesson. Of course, the pause only lasts a few moments, but I think most of us would be content to linger in the quiet observation of birds’ winter activities.
So, as teacher, I need the discipline to call back Thomas’ attention to whatever history or math or religion lesson we might have been trying to conquer. But as I’ve watched him in his joy I have become convinced that giving him (and all of us) the time to spend in wonder is time well spent. As Socrates said, “Wonder is the beginning of wisdom.”
When a boy who is otherwise consumed with movement and noise and hammers and nails suddenly stops at the window and lets out a silent breath of excitement, there is something magical happening. When I first curbed my impulse to interrupt his interior meditation I realized that his wonder is exactly the reason that Christ calls us to be like children. How can one look upon the face of God without a sense of wordless wonder? If our religion does not find a balance between both logical reason and mysterious silence we are missing much in the point of the Incarnation.
The beauty of Christmas is the wonder it ought to bring. That wonder is the gift we should be sharing with our children. I have rarely seen my children enjoy a new toy with the same sense of magic as I have observed while they stand at the window on a winter morning. There is something that doesn’t need or want an explanation; it is something that just offers its beauty and simplicity and with that, joy and hope.
I know how desperately the devil works to distract us in this season, how he urges us to find more and more ways to please ourselves and resent the day to day tedium. He pulls us away from the window and back to the mirror. The Incarnation, Christ, God as an infant with tiny fingers wrapped around the hand of his mother, leaving steam in the air as he takes his first breath and already ponders the work of the coming redemption – that is meant to take our own breath away.
The most beautiful nativity scenes succeed in portraying a moment of silence and wonder. I pray that your Christmas season is full of celebration with your family, but more so, I pray that we all find a moment in each day of Christmas to sit and pray in that same silence and wonder.
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