‘Conspire With God’ in These Good Times

There is a man who lives under a bridge. Heedless of his presence, cars laden with freshly cut Christmas trees from nearby auction yards pass overhead, hurrying to warm hearths and expectant families. The man under the bridge, body slid into arched steel girders, begins the long cold wait for dawn.

In “The People of the Abyss,” Jack London wrote of sleeping outdoors: “You would think a thousand centuries had come and gone before the east paled into the dawn; you would shiver till you were ready to cry aloud with the pain of each aching muscle; and you would marvel that you could endure so much and live. . . . Then to greet the dawn unrefreshed and to stagger through the day in mad search for crusts with relentless nights rushing down upon them again . . . . “

We are told, this Christmas, that times are good. Unemployment is low, optimism high. Shoppers flood malls and log onto amazon.com. Yet we are apprehensive as we sit down to our Christmas supper. Roast turkey with chestnut stuffing, sweet potatoes and Christmas pudding do not give us comfort. Something is not right.

What goes up inevitably falls down. Economists predict painful times ahead. A recession is on no one’s Christmas list, but that won’t slow delivery. Ironically, having nearly eliminated the safety net for the poor, whom we accuse of dallying too long on the public’s dough, there will be little help for the rest of us when we slide into hard times.

At Christmas, we send old clothes and checks to local charities but still feel at odds with the poor. Afraid of placing ourselves at economic risk we offer what is spare and worn and given at a distance. The problem, however, is not with what we give away or how, but with what we keep for ourselves.

When Isaiah announced the birth of the wonder-child Immanuel, Hebrew for “God is with us,” he was calling on a frightened people to throw in their lot with God because God had thrown in his with them. Conspire with God, Isaiah admonished--not your congresswoman or stockbroker. We can remain in darkness, he said, or be illuminated by a great light: for unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given.

Moon and mist lay silver tinsel upon the cold cement bridge. Clustered stars light the heavenly tree. It need not be a silent night.