Rediscovering Hopeful Wonder at Christmas

At my elementary school, every year a local group would bring in an inflatable planetarium, called a Sky Dome. Ever heard of that?  It wasn’t much, just an enormous tent of air, but inside, we were transported. We would crawl in and look up. Above us, the stars bloomed. Constellations like Orion, Cassiopeia, and Ursa Major swirled into life, and for a brief moment, the whole universe was ours. We were children, but we felt the weight of the cosmos, the endlessness of space, and the wonder of it all.

From the stars that foretold the descendants of Abraham to the one that guided the Magi to Bethlehem, the stars have always been part of God’s story. As we prepare to celebrate Christmas, we remember another cosmic moment—the birth of Christ. In that moment, when the heavens opened wide with joy, God’s creative hand was revealed. Jesus, the eternal Word, entered time itself, born as a fragile child in the quiet of night. The divine and the human met, and in that meeting, the ordinary was transformed into the extraordinary. In the birth of Christ, we see the heart of God—vulnerable, pure, unshakable. Despite the world’s brokenness—poverty, pain, loss—Christ’s arrival was a declaration of love. 

And now, I ask you: when was the last time you felt that kind of wonder—the kind of awe like a child lying beneath the stars or like someone experiencing Christmas for the first time? This Christmas, let us reignite that sense of wonder. May we once again look to the stars—those silent, eternal witnesses—and remember that, just as the stars have purpose, so do we. Christ came to dwell among us, inviting us into a love that transcends time and space. In the ordinary moments of life, we can discover the extraordinary. In Christ, we encounter the boundless wonder of creation and God’s eternal love for us.

Let us embrace that wonder. Let it transform us, renewing our hearts with the beauty of the divine story and reminding us of the love that has always surrounded us. This Christmas, let us rest in the truth that we are part of something far greater than we can comprehend—and in that knowing, let us carry the love of Christ into the world. Amen.