With The Second Day Of Christmas Comes The Gift Of Intimacy With God

Most people in the world know there is a Supreme God. John, Jesus? soul friend, goes further: ?We have heard ? seen ? touched ?? he writes in his First Letter chapter one, which is read in churches today.

In the Celtic tradition John, because he is contemplative, is imagined as having ?the eye of the eagle? ? for the eagle was thought, alone of all birds, to be able to gaze into the face of the sun, and Jesus is pictured as The Eternal Sun whose rays are revealed at Christmas. Bishop Tom Wright, of Durham, UK, likens John to a hawk. A hawk sees the big picture ? so does John, e.g. ?in the beginning was the Word? ? but a hawk also notices the tiniest detail, which enables him to get his daily food. Christ?s gift of loving intimacy enables us to experience God?s love both ?wide, wide as the ocean? and in the little nuances of another person to whom we become truly present.