Welcome
Heart Tales is a monthly newsletter for people on an adventure toward wholeness. It is published by Jim Cyr, storyteller, author, and crisis intervention specialist.
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The Christmas Story
Abridged and adapted by Jim Cyr from The Manager is Empty by Walter Wangerin, Jr.
Once upon a time the world was dark, and the land where the people lived was in deep darkness. It was as dark as the night in the daytime. It had been dark for so long that the people had forgotten what the light was like.
This is what they did: they lit small candles for themselves and pretended that it was day. But the world was a gloomy place, and the people who walked in darkness were lonelier than they knew, and the lonely people were sadder than they could say.
But God was in love with the world. God looked down from heaven and saw that the earth was stuck, like a clock at midnight. “No,” he said. This is not good. It’s time to make time tick again. Time…time,” said the mighty God, “to turn the earth from night to morning.
And God was in love with the people especially. He saw their little candlelight, and he pitied their pretending. “Poor people, pretending to be happy,” he said. “Well, I want them to be happy. It’s time,” declared the Lord our God. “It’s time to do a new thing! I’ll shatter their darkness. I will send sunlight down so they can see and know that they are seeing.”
God so loved the world that he sent his only Son into the world itself. This is how he did it.
It came to pass in those dark days that Caesar, the Emperor commanded that all the people should be counted. “A census,” he decreed. “Citizens, go to the cities of your parents and grandparents to be counted according to families there.” So people began to travel.
So Joseph, too, obeyed the command. He and Mary traveled south together, to the province named Judea, to a particular city of David called Bethlehem, but in that city to no particular house at all, for they had no house in Bethlehem.
Joseph was a descendant of King David, that’s why he came to Bethlehem. But there were hundreds and hundreds of others descended from David; the city was crowded with people, and that’s why there was no house–no rooms at all where Joseph could lay Mary down to rest for a while. Even in inn was full.
But the night was dark and cold. The night was deep and lonely. And Mary was huge with her child and tired. She was filled with tiredness and groaning.
“Joseph, it’s time, the baby’s coming. It’s time,” groaned Mary.
“Mary, can you wait a little longer?” fretted Joseph.
“No.”
“Mary, there’s no place for us.”
“It’s time,” she said.
So Joseph went running through the streets of his city. People were sleeping. Nobody noticed. Nobody answered his knocking.
So this is all he could find: a stable where travelers tied their beasts while they slept, a little shelter against the night.
“Mary,” he said as he led her there “Do you mind?”
“No,” groaned Mary.
“Can you lay on the straw?” asked Joseph.
“It’s time,” she said and knelt down.
So there it was that she brought forth her firstborn son; and she wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.
And there were shepherds in that same dark country abiding in fields, keeping watch over their flocks by night.
And God turned to his angel. “Gabriel,” God said.
And the angel answered, “Yes, Lord?”
And the Lord God said, “Go down. All the people must know what I am doing. Tired and lonely, scattered and scared, all the people must hear it. Go, good Gabriel. Go down. Go tell a few to tell the others till every child has heard it. GO!”
So there was an angel flying through the night. So swiftly he flew that no one noticed him until he appeared to the weary shepherd. And their darkness was shattered, the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were sore afraid.
The angel said to them, “Don’t be afraid.”
But the light was like a hard and holy wind, and the shepherds shielded their faces with their arms.
“Hush,” said the angel, “hush,” like the west wind. “Shepherds, I bring you good news of great joy, and not only for you but for all the people. Listen!”
So the shepherds stood there squinting and blinking, and the shepherds began to listen. But none of them had the courage to talk or say anything. And this is what the angel Gabriel said.
“For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you. You will find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.”
Suddenly, the sky itself split open, and like the fall of a thousand stars the light poured down. There came with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host prais9ing God and saying: “Glory to God in the highest and on earth…peace…Peace to the people with whom he is pleased!”
But the angels’ singing was soon over. And they went back into heaven and the sky was closed again. And there came a breeze…and a marvelous quiet…and the simple dark of the night. And the gloom, the darkness which had covered the earth for so long was lifted. For not all the light had gone back into heaven. The Light of the World himself stayed down on the earth.
So thin, this is what the shepherds said to one another: Lets go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.”
So the shepherds got up and ran as fast as they could to the city of Bethlehem, to a particular stable in that city, and in that stable they gazed upon one particular baby, lying in the manager.
Then, in that moment, everything was glowing with light. For there was the infant, just waking, lifting his arms in the air, and making sucking motions with his mouth. The holy child was hungry. And there was his mother lying on the straw as lovely as a lily and listening to the noises of her child.
“Joseph?” she murmured.
And there was Joseph as sturdy as a barn, just bending toward his Mary.
“What?” he whispered.
And the shepherds eyes were shining for what they saw, exactly as if it were morning and not night. And the shepherds went out into the city and began at once to tell everyone what the angel had said about this child. They left a trail of startled people behind them, as they went on their way, glorifying and praising God.
But Mary did not so much as rise that night. She received the baby from Joseph’s hands, then placed him down on her breast while she lay on her side on the straw. With one arm she cradled the infant against her body. On the other arm, bent at the elbow, she rested her head: and she gazed at her small son sucking.
Mary lowered her long black lashes and watched him…and loved him.
“Jesus, Jesus,” she murmured, for the baby’s name was Jesus.
“Joseph?” she said glancing up.
“What May?”
But Mary fell silent and said no more. She was keeping all these things–all that had happened between the darkness and the light–and thinking about them in her heart.
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Thought to Ponder
“Let all mortal flesh keep silence, And with fear and trembling stand: ponder nothing earthly minded, For with blessing in His hand. Christ our God to earth descendeth, our full hommage to demand.” Liturgy of St. James, 4th Centruy
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Your Comments Welcome
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Heart Tales Happenings
Book
My book, The Cracked Pot: Finding Grace in the Cracks of Child Abuse. is available at Amazon.com
“This is one man’s true story of the unspeakable things that were done to him as a child and his rocky journey through adulthood to find God, peace AND his true self.”
Blog
If you enjoy this newsletter, check out The Hert Tales Blog at http://hearttales.net/blog. The blog is published every Monday and Thursday. Check out the current series: “The Adventures of Brother Jim”
About Jim & Heart Tales
The true spirit of my work is to lead people on a life-changing adventure toward wholeness by connecting their hearts to their true selves, to others, and to God, through stories of healing, wisdom, and faith. My life-changing adventure toward wholeness includes performances of folk and fairy tales, sacred stories, and personal stories, and workshops on how to tell stories in therapeutic settings.
Feedback
”Jim’s storytelling spoke to many of the problems our women face on the road to recovery from addiction and gave them options for handling those problems they had not considered before.”
Helen Raytek, Program Director, Crawford House
“Jim, I want to thank you for your time, efforts, and talents in presenting your Clinical Benefits of Storytelling Workshop. I was very impressed with your professional and fun deliverance of the material and many useful resources and examples. I felt I benefited from it both personally and professionally, and will use what I learned…”
John J. D. Schweska, L.P.C. Assistant Program Director, Mobile Response and Stabilization Services, Catholic Charities, Diocese of Metuchen
“…your newsletter is a wonderful resource, and I hope that many will subscribe to it.”
Dr. Robert Bela Wilhelm, Storyfest Ministry
“…Thank you once again, Jim, for sharing your stories/your story and influencing my healing.”
Eileen