Some days ago, I was playing with my favorite 2nd Grader in the whole world. At one point she said to me, “Grandpa! Let’s pretend we are on a spaceship and traveling to Planet Christmas; a place where it is Christmas every day.”
The conversation was delightful and went further with her descriptions of what such a planet would be like. For me, one of the most memorable conditions she expressed was that when it is Christmas Day here on this planet, the whole universe is an especially happy and loving place.
After the past year we have all experienced – filled as it has been and continues to be – with its enormous human loss from pandemic, significant division in our country, economic hardship, and the social upheaval of absolutely everything, I need a trip to planet Christmas. Do you?
I am joy-filled that such a planet is not an exclusive place. Locations of light, love, and justice never are. Such a planet might just as well be called ‘planet Hanukkah;’ a place where no matter any darkness or its pervasiveness, the light of love, justice, and hope for a new day is never extinguished.
I am grateful that the messages celebrated at Christmastime and in the lighting of the Menorah of Hanukkah are so remarkably similar. It is an eternal truth confirmed over centuries and centuries of humanity’s less admirable times. It is the message that our better angels are continually inspired, even in overwhelming darkness, to take flight. Those better angels inspire other human take-offs of achievements all in the realization that we are not alone in life on this planet where it is decidedly true that neither Christmas nor Hanukkah is a daily experience.
It is this enduring truth which has enabled holy lights to be kept burning during human oppressions and sufferings of all kinds; to be kept burning no matter what or no matter when. Such light has inspired first responder hope for a liberating day for thousands of years. Indeed, it is this light that has motivated the eternal spirit within our forbears to overcome all manner of human tyranny. It is this light in each of us which holds out the potential to be children of the light choosing to live in such a way as to dispel all forces of darkness within or all around us.
While it is true that there are so many of us seemingly on different planets of reality in these divided days, it is also the case that our common ground is not to be discovered in a political platform, a particular theology, the courts, a party platform, an economic stimulus or even a vaccine.
The common ground is to be discovered on another “planet.” It is planet Christmas. It is the planet Hanukkah. It is planet where our souls ultimately find a decidedly humbling and holy place. It is a planet of common ground – a spiritually and geographical centering place where light overcomes any darkness. “Grandpa! Let’s pretend we are on a spaceship and traveling to planet Christmas; a place where it is Christmas every day.”
We do not need to pretend. Such a planet exists. It is hardwired into our spirits. No matter how difficult our planet Earth is as 2020 draws to a close, each of us can get on board such a hope-engendering spaceship within each of us. We can touch down on this planet enabling 2021 to be better, much better, because we intentionally strap ourselves in – every day – for the unifying journey.