Keep on caroling

by Helen G. Hasler 

from the Christian Science Sentinel December 31, 1984

Do you dread having to unpack and then repack the Christmas ornaments and decorations? Are you happy to see the holidays over and done with? Are you worried about the bills that have piled up? None of these human reactions should be a part of our thought as this season becomes a memory. We may inadvertently drift into this kind of thinking if we have indulged in too much frivolous gaiety during the holidays instead of realizing they are joyous holy days commemorating the birth of Jesus. But it is not too late to restore our Christmas joy.

To encourage people to live and act as though each day were Christmas, a radio station in a large midwestern American city plays a Christmas carol every day throughout the year. When I first heard this innovative idea I cringed. Enough is enough, I thought. I have been sated with Christmas music for weeks, and the season is over. “Listen to them all year?” I grumbled. “Let’s be reasonable.” However, as the weeks rolled by and I happened to hear an occasional carol, the words began to have greater significance to me. Very often they would meet a need at that moment.

“Let nothing you dismay.” World events, petty politics, family challenges, business trends, might try to disturb my thinking, but how could they, with these words of a carol ringing in my ears? How could I be dismayed when I knew God was in control and the true spirit of Christmas was stirring in my heart? “All is calm, all is bright.” Of course, all can be calm and bright with the light of love when Christlike thought pervades—when we express more and more of the purity, truth, and love Christ Jesus expressed. “Where charity stands watching / And faith holds wide the door.” What a reminder that faith that never wavers does hold wide the door, a door through which hatred, animosity, envy, and strife cannot enter.

Bits and pieces of other carols also comforted me as I heard them sung throughout the year. On a springlike day, in warm summer or in crisp autumn weather, Christlike thinking was nurtured. The effort of this radio station to help the people in our community maintain the Christmas spirit was certainly reaching me. Undoubtedly it must have been touching others too. And what is the true Christmas spirit that we all need to nurture? It is the Christ—the spirit of Truth and Love—so beautifully manifested in the man Jesus. His example is for all times.

The presence of the Christ is not confined to the month of December. It can and will be felt and expressed to a degree by each one of us as we follow the example of the Master. At the end of the second chapter of Luke we read that the young Jesus “increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.”¹ We, too, should increase in wisdom and in stature, and we do so by gaining spiritual understanding through study and practice of the Science of Christ, and by expressing unselfed love to our fellowman in thoughtful deeds, consideration, and healing.

We can preserve the spirit of Christmas in our lives by keeping watch as the shepherds did. We can keep watch over our thoughts and try to make sure they are obedient, expectant, and joyous, expectant of good that shines like the morning star in the night of darkness, fear, and doubt. That morning star will guide us to the Christ. And, like the wise men, we can bring our gifts. Each day we can bring gifts of gold—thoughts and acts that replace the mortal concept of man with the true, the spiritual concept of man as God made him; gifts of frankincense—the gratitude that opens the door and keeps the true spirit of Christmas alive in our hearts; gifts of myrrh—the oil of gladness that anoints our consciousness and heals us.

Mrs. Eddy loved Christmas dearly, and she has written several beautiful articles on Christmas, which are found in her book The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, pages 256-263. These articles contain messages just as potent and applicable throughout the year as they are at the Christmas season. In one of them she tenderly states, “I love to observe Christmas in quietude, humility, benevolence, charity, letting good will towards man, eloquent silence, prayer, and praise express my conception of Truth’s appearing.”²

These beautiful qualities, actions, and attitudes—expressed consistently throughout the year—would have a tremendous leavening effect on the whole world. Infinite blessings come from God; they are felt and known in the quiet peace of confidence in God’s loving care for all. We should cultivate the humility that yields to God’s will; benevolence that is never out of season; charity that permeates our everyday activities and illumines our path; an eloquent silence that comes when we are tempted to judge or censure unwisely or without love; prayer that includes all mankind, not just those near and dear to us; and praise spoken in a way that encourages our neighbor to greater heights.

As we cultivate these qualities, not only will the light of Truth shine more brightly for us during the Christmas season, but we will express it more naturally all through the year, continuing in the Christmas spirit. A loved hymn expresses it in this way:

Yes, let “heaven and nature sing” and let’s keep on caroling throughout the year.

This article was published in the December 31, 1984 issue of the Christian Science Sentinel. To learn more about this weekly inspirational magazine, published online and in print, visit HERE.