Over in Steiner Ranch there’s this one guy who has like a 20 foot tree on top of his house, he’s got a sled with flying reindeer, Santa is on the front lawn to remind us of the real meaning of Christmas, he has the mailbox of Frank Griswald, and at least 6000 lights, maybe more. It’s a circus and taco stand and Las Vegas all compressed onto a half acre lot. -- There’s a house like that in River Place too. But, what I noticed about this house -- and I just noticed this today -- is that right next door is a simple crèche with the holy family, three kings, a shepherd, and miscellaneous livestock. It is not lighted, you can only see it in the day time. Nothing flashes. None of the livestock have a red nose either. It’s just a normal, quite pretty but unelaborate manger scene. And it occurred to me that this is a true reflection of what Christmas has become. Jesus is still there -- he hasn’t been stolen by secularists, oh ye of little faith -- It’s just hard to see Him. But there He is. Jesus and the whole gang. They are right there in the darkness which is right next to the light.

Today I saw true living icons of the nativity. You think I’m kidding… I was on either my second or my third trip to Pflugerville -- don’t even ask -- when I realized that right before my very eyes were living reminders of the true meaning of Christmas. The homeless, shamed, illegitimate were right there on the side of the road reminding me of two things: 1) the scandal that the whole thing was in society. People like to talk about that a lot for some reason. And 2) the shame and danger of being unwed and with child, the fear of giving birth, the life and death of it all. And right before my very eyes I saw people hoping to make it another day on the streets. In their eyes I see the shame of being exiled from regular society, the near panic of trying to find a place to exist in a world that says you can’t be here… no, not there either. But, icons don’t just give us a window into another world. If that’s all they did people would be crowded around icons of Jesus all day. Icons also look back. I was seen today. I was seen by a couple of people who know me. Know I’m good for a buck, I always have food, time to talk. And there were more whom I’d never seen before. You might think that their gaze would condemn my relative affluence, my ease. But, no. I was embraced, greeted joyously. Today I did see Jesus -- not in the church which won’t have me but in the Christ who seeks me. Happy Christmas.

I saw a hawk today.