Wondering...

Only 5 (or 4, depending on how you look at it) days until Christmas!  Today my mom and I went and got a Christmas tree.  It is a bit later than we would normally get one, but we were feeling lazy about such things until today.  Today, of course, was pouring down rain, and cold.  We stopped at a lot where Mom had spotted a tree she liked on the outer edges, and waded through mud puddles to get to it.  Once there, the tree lot man (who was dressed entirely in orange rain gear) tried to give us a tour of the lot, until we finally stopped at a tree and decided we wanted it and refused to be toured around any more.  The man did not seem to understand our reluctance to wander in the rain looking at trees, but he finally let us take the tree and go.  And now we have a tree!  Yay!

I was perusing the internet today reading about joy, and something that stuck out to me about a blog post I read (and now I can't find it to link to it) was the concept of wonder.  I think that as a society, we are generally fairly cynical.  On my ride home tonight I was listening to NPR and there was a discussion about whether science is replacing philosophy.  The move of some well-known scientists to discount religion and philosophy as unquantifiable and unprovable is something that is definitely influencing the world as we know it.  I got out of the car before the discussion was finished, but this particular discussion was leaning toward philosophy being important and having a place in society.  Which I happen to agree with.  I think that some things just need to be beyond quantification.  I love the fact that we still can't predict if it will actually snow for sure or not!

There is a degree of the unexplainable about Christmas.  I already talked about miracles a bit, but I think that part of our joy is holding on to the truth that there are things going on that we don't have to understand every aspect of.  We can just trust that we are a part of the big, beautiful picture.  I love the picture that Madeleine L'Engle (yes, again) paints when she asks:

"Was there a moment, known only to God when all the stars held their breath, when the galaxies paused in their dance for a fraction of a second, and the Word, who had called it all into being, went with his love into the womb of a young girl, and the universe started to breathe again, and the ancient harmonies resumed their song, and the angels clapped their hands for joy?"

I wonder.