The Tragic and the Magic
The headline reads: "Christmas Eve Becomes Nightmare...", which is horrifically accurate...
We were on our way home to bake cookies for Santa. The kids were watching the sky for the dim red light gleaming from Rudolph's shiny nose. Magic was in the air and in our hearts. It was, after all, the most magical night of the year.
Someone very wise once told me to do my best to live life without expectations. And, for the most part, I have learned that this is very good advice. However, Christmas Eve as I have experienced it thus far has consistently been... magic. So, the expectation was set. Set like a precious, fragile work of art on a low shelf in a room with a 2-year-old...
The magic became tragic on December 24th of 2021 when an intoxicated driver came full speed across the turning lane and into oncoming traffic directly in front of our van. The tragic became magic when I was miraculously able to quickly cut the wheel and avoid a head on collision with the oncoming vehicle. The magic became tragic again when I heard the intoxicated driver slam her car at full speed (without breaking or swerving) into the car our 20-year-old daughter, Savannah (who was following us home that evening), was driving.
Time froze as I screamed her name in shock and horror. Kristie and I were both filled with the fear that she could not possibly have survived that impact. Yet, a sliver of hope and trust in the miraculous mercy of the God who is Love allowed me to conjure enough courage to beg for Savannah's life to be spared.
The tragic became magic once again when Kristie and I arrived at what was once a car to find Savannah... alive! By the grace of that Friend who is Love, our prayers and pleas for a Christmas Eve miracle were answered. Magic and miracles are as real as anything we experience here, and Savannah's continued presence on planet Earth is living proof.
Life is filled with the tragic and the magic. We take the good with the bad, but sometimes the bad tricks us into becoming bitter. In a world filled with covid, cancer, intoxicated drivers who get sent home without a drug test, wars, genocide, racism, misogyny, entropy, etc., it is easy to become bitter. That is, only if we forget that the world is also filled with magic: life (in all of its magical forms), laughter, family, music, dancing, poetry, justice, beauty, mountain views, the colors in the sky at sunset, trees that wave hello and share the very breath that keeps us alive, streams, waterfalls, clouds, hot coffee, warm blankets, softly falling colorful leaves, softly falling snow and the spring that will inevitably follow, non-dairy Ben and Jerry's (did I mention coffee?), indoor plumbing and hot showers, central heat and air, playing and acting silly with children of all ages (did I mention dancing and laughing?), etc. Honestly, I could just keep going, because when I stop and think about it... the magic FAR outweighs the tragic.
So may we choose to see the magic! It is all around us… just waiting to be noticed, appreciated, and enjoyed. May we dive head first into gratitude, and in doing so, may we discover that gratitude is its very own form of magic. Gratitude has the power to dissolve bitterness and despair. Gratitude reminds us that we are alive and that we are loved! That may be hard to accept sometimes, but would we even be here otherwise?
We are alive... We are loved... and THAT... is... magic.