Jane Metcalf
December 2025
We use words like wind or breath to articulate our experiencing the Spirit of God.
In their book Fearfully and Wonderfully, leprosy surgeon Dr. Paul Brand and Christian writer Philip Yancey, look at how the Body of Christ is analogous with how the human body works. They point out that our spiritual life and awareness of God are not as instinctive nor as urgent as the mode of breathing is in our physical body.
They relate the story of a middle aged, hardworking woman who complained about a growing tendency to drop things. She was worn down by the lack of control she had over her hands. Her doctor asked her if she had trouble breathing, and she replied “Not at all…I just get tired.” She concluded, “I must be getting old.”
Her doctor stayed by her side as they sought healing. After false starts and many tests, they discovered a growth that was progressively bending her windpipe, constricting it from both sides. After the removal surgery she said “Now, I can breathe…I can run up the stairs. I feel like a teenager again. I can breathe!”
The woman did not even know breath was the problem because her issue was so slowly growing that it felt normal.
The question for me and for us, as we experience the birth of Christ is: Do all the traditional things we do at Christmas – the way we spend our time and money and effort – impede our ability to be still, and open to the spirit of God? The holiday time can bring stress, too much to do, too little time, too few resources. Sometimes we have to choose. Sometimes life puts in our lap something for which we have no control.
We may wonder, what is really happening? And so we go for a check-up. What is the diagnosis? Is there something, like the woman, that has become normalized in us? Something that puts God on the sideline?
I invite you to ask yourself, what is affecting me that I am not consciously aware of? What remedy is needed to help me slow down, to put things in perspective, to enrich the experience of Christmas?
I am pondering what the answer is for me, and hope to have the courage to address issues that are identified. May it be the same for you. Merry Christmas.