The War at Christmas
Our world is at war. Every year the forces of dark grind away. Every year the Lord of the Armies of Light, Santa Claus by name, sallies forth and reverses much or all of their inroads.
The deadliest weapon in the arsenal of Light is their mirth. Their laughter slays. They are fiercely, immensely jolly.
The Castles of Christmas are their unbreachable redoubt. They return there every year to regroup and rest where they cannot be touched.
It is said that the castles have one weakness. If ever the merry laughter ceases, the walls will be breached.
But it hasn’t happened yet. Because Santa Claus and the other men of Christmas have a secret.
They know that at the heart of the Castles, there is a land where a Child is in a manger under a starry sky. And that land can never be breached. There is no weakness, no trick, no eventuality, that can take that refuge away.
When the reverses are piling up and the War of Christmas is going grim, Santa and his men begin to think about the great surprise that the dark will have when they breach the Castles, and the hilarious anticipation of that surprise makes them break out in great ringing laughter.
Annie
December 28, 2017
Please forgive the long comment, but your whole post reminded me of this whole song, one of my most favorite Christmas songs, ever. The babe, our King, is “Lord of all this revelling.” Lyrics follow:
“What sweeter music can we bring
Than a carol, for to sing
The birth of this our heavenly King?
Awake the voice! Awake the string!
Dark and dull night, fly hence away,
And give the honor to this day,
That sees December turned to May.
That sees December turned to May.
Why does the chilling winter’s morn
Smile, like a field beset with corn?
Or smell like a meadow newly-shorn,
Thus, on the sudden? Come and see
The cause, why things thus fragrant be:
‘Tis He is born, whose quickening birth
Gives life and luster, public mirth,
To heaven, and the under-earth.
We see him come, and know him ours,
Who, with his sunshine and his showers,
Turns all the patient ground to flowers.
Turns all the patient ground to flowers.
The darling of the world is come,
And fit it is, we find a room
To welcome him. To welcome him.
The nobler part Of all the house here,
is the heart.
Which we will give him; and bequeath
This holly, and this ivy wreath,
To do him honour, who’s our King,
And Lord of all this revelling.
What sweeter music can we bring,
Than a carol for to sing
The birth of this our heavenly King?”
Bruce Charlton
December 29, 2017
@G – Yes indeed.
Christmas taps-into childhood pre-awareness that lies within almost everyone. The forces against Christmas have therefore only been able to label Christmas naive, juvenile, hypocritical – and to disenchant people from adolescence onwards.
But new parents often, usually, recover Christmas from within themselves – inarticulate hence ineradicable.
Every father can therefore become Father Christmas, by something akin to ‘channeling’ – we are overcome by that jovial, kindly spirit; who works through each of us – automatically when allowed.
Having experienced being-‘possessed’ by the Christmas spirit; each father then knows in his secret-heart that Santa is real, really-real – although he cannot explain how.
E.C.
December 30, 2017
This is wonderful. On a not entirely unrelated note, I’ve been re-reading all of N.D. Wilson’s books, and this reminds me of several scenes in which laughter is a potent weapon, and joy turns the tide against darkness as much or more than courage or bravery or strength, because joy is the source of those virtues – joy and hope.
Andrew
January 1, 2018
Have you seen “Arthur Christmas”? They all speak with British accents and it has the same message as Dr. Charlton, lol.