Art By Teresa DeLallo
I slept, dreaming.
I dreamt I stood in utter darkness upon a long night-covered plain. A soft wind blew, and there was snow whirling about me. My hair was blown from my face, and white snowflakes tangled in it. The air felt icy against my face, yet somehow I was not cold. I stood, feeling the winter wind in my hair, but I was warm with a deep joy.
The black of snow-filled night lay over me, silent and wondrous. I tilted my head back and gazed up into the unlimited space of night, and dark snowflakes settled on my eyelashes. Somehow, even through the winter storm, I could see the outspread depths of the stars. They glowed like jewels inside a glass ball.
There was one star that shone brighter than the rest, a mighty star that shone with such fierce intensity it made me want to weep and laugh. The Moon herself was swallowed up in its radiance.
The star grew brighter suddenly, and flashed with a light so magnificent that I had to look away, or else be blinded. I looked aside, and saw that the dark plain before me was lightened. Radiance enfolded me. The great white star danced above, illumining the snow-covered plain, and setting myriad lights twinkling in the new-fallen winter. My breath caught; in the hoary plain before me a path was laid. This was no hand-hewn path, either. This was a white path, a path of light laid down by that single great star, a straight, true path that leapt across the ground before me.
I began to walk; slow it seemed, though at the same time very swift. The world around me flew past as though I stood quite still and the land rolled away beneath my feet. Yet always the path was before me, a beacon of white fire shining in my eyes.
At length I saw before me a building. It stood, quite alone, upon a barren white hillside. The glory of the star lighted upon it and bathed it in a silver radiance, and it shone with a light that was not of the world. Turning my face from its beauty I gazed down to the left into a valley. There, I saw the yellow lights of a small village below. I looked forward again, to the star-drenched building, and did not wonder that this lonely building stood forlorn and unwelcome here. This was how it must be, and my heart beat hard with indescribable joy. Walking forward slowly, I put my hand out to the door-latch. At my touch the portal swung wide, and I entered in.
It was a stable.
A donkey nickered in a stall; a cow lowered her ponderous head and blew out her breath at me A nose nuzzled at my hand. I gazed down. A lamb bleated piteously. The sound sent a thrill through me. I raised my head, and saw before me that which my heart loved most.
A young Woman sat upon a bale of hay. She leant slightly forward, her hair bound up beneath a veil; she gazed into the face of a Child. A man stood near, leaning upon a wood staff. His face and the Lady’s face shone with a fierce light, and their eyes gleamed like stars in their joyous faces. A mantle was cast over the woman’s shoulders, a long woven mantle of blue, silver and white. It fell over her shoulders and over the little Child she held in her arms.
Though I was still, it seemed I drew close and looked over her shoulder. I looked down into the face of the Child.
Newborn, He hardly filled his Mother’s lap. He was wrapped in a blanket of white; His small hands were curled ‘neath His chin. His eyes were closed in slumber, the lashes dark on His rosy cheekbones, and His dark hair gleaming about the shining glow of His baby Face. The light cast upon the features of His Mother and Guardian came from His body; it was the fiercely gentle, blindingly soft light of Heaven. I saw one of His small feet peep from its covering, and in its instep I saw the faint shadow, the foretelling vision of a nail mark. As I gazed, suddenly I heard singing. Only for a moment I heard it, sweet and glorious, mighty and gentle, sad and joyous, beautiful and heartbreaking.
Then I awoke.
I lay in my bed in the utter dark. Beside me a little sister slept, her breathing heavy in my ear. I raised my head slightly. Through the open doorway of my bedroom I could faintly hear the Christmas music from the radio in the living room, and imagined that I could see the lights from the Christmas tree illumined on the wall. I lay back, my heart swelling with a joy that is only felt at this holy time of year, and I smiled in the dark.
For it was Christmas Day.
And Christ was born.
Story by Katrina DeLallo
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