top of page
Search
Writer's pictureRev. James Trapp

The Spirit of Christmas



When we can grasp and live out Christmas' true meaning, there can be an expanded awareness of our divine nature. Such an expansion in consciousness happened with Maria one Christmas Eve.


Maria was driving home when she looked in the rear-view mirror and saw the dreaded red and blue flashing lights of a police car. She promptly pulled over to the side of the road. The officer pulled up behind her, got out of his police cruiser, and walked up to the driver's side of Maria's car.


Feeling agitated, Maria asked the officer why he had pulled her over. The officer said to her, "You ran the red light." Maria was sure she did not run through a red light and said, "No, the light was yellow." He said it was red; she said it was yellow. This exchange went back and forth several times. In the end, the police officer won. He gave her a ticket.


Well, the dark-side of Maria’s persona started to rise; her anger began to boil over. Maria was from the Bronx. And, according to her, the natural inclination for someone from her neck-of-the-woods would be to bring out that Bronx attitude and verbally excoriate and curse out the officer. She was thinking of telling him he must be on the lowest rung of the police department to have to work on Christmas Eve, and how heartless a creature he was for giving out tickets on Christmas Eve too.


But something within Maria stopped her from spewing out any nasty words toward the officer. Instead, she said with an empathetic tone, "Oh, it's unfortunate you have to work on Christmas Eve." And the police officer said, "I'm just doing my job." Maria then replied by saying, "I just want to bless you and wish you a very Merry Christmas." She then took her ticket and drove home, and put the incident behind her.


The next day, Maria heard a knock on her door. When she opened the door, to her surprise, it was him … the police officer! The officer then said to Maria, “I went back to review the scene where I gave you the ticket, and I realize that from your angle, the light looked like it was yellow. Would you mind giving me back the ticket I gave you?”


Now the officer coming to Maria's house to take back the ticket is a miracle almost on the same level of Moses parting the Red Sea. However, the real miracle was when Maria wanted to say something nasty to the officer, but the purity of her heart guided her to speak from the Christ Presence instead.


Her response was the true miracle. The power of the Christ Mind, the Love Intelligence that governs the Universe, is expressed through us when we allow it to be the activity of our awareness. That is the Spirit of Christmas and what the season is all about. Let us envision that Spirit for every one of us, as well as for our world.


Peace, Blessings, and Merry Christmas!

James


182 views0 comments

Recent Posts

See All

Commentaires


bottom of page