When I was a wee lad and engaging in one of my favorite pastimes of watching movies at the only theatre in Eldorado I knew that the movie had concluded when the words The End appeared. Of course, that simply meant the movie had concluded for that run of it and I had time to make a restroom visit and a visit to the concessions stand before the movie of the day began again and I would sit and enjoy it anew.  

Nature is a bit like the movies at the Orpheum. The leaves have changed color and then gone brown and fallen to the ground. The Woods are dormant and dark and deep and the bare limbs stretch their naked arms towards the sky. A cold rain is falling today and the Christmas Wreaths are getting wet. Many of the Christmas lights are ablaze as the grey skies have beckoned them to shine. Christmas shoppers are out because time is drawing nigh for the celebration. The Manger scenes have dead leaves among their living images. 

Has The End occurred we say. Is all death and quiet and stillness? The Christ Child gives us hope for tomorrow. The movie may have concluded…but it begins again soon…

‘Weeping may endure for the night but joy comes in the morning.’ 

Could it be that The End…Is The Beginning…