The Promises of Christmas ~ Good Will to Men

Happy Christmas Dear Reader,

I wonder if we really ponder what it is to have good will toward each other.  It could be as simple as having a good predisposition toward others.  It is as complex as laying aside what we are told to think about each other and obeying the command to love everyone.

It is as easy as choosing to be kind to everyone you encounter.  I have written about my “share my table” sign that I use at a local coffee house where I go to write.  The last three times I have been there someone has come to share my table.  That sign proclaims a promise to all who see it: “I offer you good will.  Join me if you wish.”

In the acceptance of that invitation I have made friends with a pastor, a cartographer, and an astrophysicist.  My life has been so very enriched by just leaving the door ajar.  The small promise of welcome at my table is a part of the greater promise of Christmas that I try to embody all year. 

We need to have constant good will toward each other.  It is vital to getting the world back to good.  It is easier than one would think.  I have mentioned in this series letting go of the past.  We must also not collect any ill will along the way.  If others have it seek to heal the situation if you can.  Do not take up the gauntlet of new burdens born by ill will.

We can change the world.  We can get to good.  We must first determine that we will be the difference.  We will have good will to everyone.  The promise of Christmas is that God has this toward us.  We should in turn pass it on to each other.

Old City Bar – Trans-Siberian Orchestra

In an old city bar

That is never too far

From the places that gather

The dreams that have been

In the safety of night

With its old neon light

It beckons to strangers

And they always come in

And the snow it was falling

The neon was calling

The music was low

And the night

Christmas Eve

And here was the danger

That even with strangers

Inside of this night

It's easier to believe

Then the door opened wide

And a child came inside

That no one in the bar

Had seen there before

And he asked did we know

That outside in the snow

That someone was lost

Standing outside our door

Then the bartender gazed

Through the smoke and the haze

Through the window and ice

To a corner streetlight

Where standing alone

By a broken pay phone

Was a girl the child said

Could no longer get home

And the snow it was falling

The neon was calling

The bartender turned

And said, not that I care

But how would you know this?

The child said I've noticed

If one could be home

They'd be already there

Then the bartender came out from behind the bar

And in all of his life he was never that far

And he did something else that he thought no one saw

When he took all the cash from the register draw

Then he followed the child to the girl cross the street

And we watched from the bar as they started to speak

Then he called for a cab and he said J.F.K.

Put the girl in the cab and the cab drove away

And we saw in his hand

That the cash was all gone

From the light that she had wished upon

If you want to arrange it

This world you can change it

If we could somehow make this

Christmas thing last

By helping a neighbor

Or even a stranger

And to know who needs help

You need only just ask

Then he looked for the child

But the child wasn't there

Just the wind and the snow

Waltzing dreams through the air

So he walked back inside

Somehow different I think

For the rest of the night

No one paid for a drink

And the cynics will say

That some neighborhood kid

Wandered in on some bums

In the world where they hid

But they weren't there

So they couldn't see

By an old neon star

On that night, Christmas Eve

When the snow it was falling

The neon was calling

And in case you should wonder

In case you should care

Why we're on our own

Never went home

On that night of all nights

We were already there

Wishing you joy in the journey,

Aramis Thorn

Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a home owner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store.”

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