{"id":52,"date":"2013-12-25T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2013-12-25T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/d4a276ea-aa45-4d44-8ba9-9cdfaa70a282"},"modified":"2013-12-25T05:00:00","modified_gmt":"2013-12-25T05:00:00","slug":"the-embrace-a-christmas-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thewonderchildblog.com\/?p=52","title":{"rendered":"The Embrace: A Christmas Story"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Embrace<\/o:p><\/font><\/p>\n

A Christmas Story<\/o:p><\/font><\/p>\n

By<\/o:p><\/font><\/p>\n

Joseph Anthony<\/o:p><\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/o:p><\/font>\"\"<\/p>\n


\n<\/o:p><\/font><\/p>\n

They walked all day. Miles
\nthey came taking turns carrying the child. As the mother and father moved
\ncautiously through the darkening woods they ached with fatigue. And when their
\nplodding steps slowed to a halt they couldn\u2019t help it, they sat down to rest right
\nthere in the middle of the road. The mother handed the child to the father so
\nshe could stretch out. The father held the child on his chest and joined her on
\nthe cool, dusty road. <\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

Then
\nsilently, from the darkness, yellow eyes appeared. The father grabbed the child
\nand sat upright. Suddenly animals stepped from the shadows towards them. He
\nroused his wife. They huddled there together, shaking\u2014turning every which way
\nonly to see animals forming a circle around them. The child began to giggle.
\nThe father moved to cover his face, but the child brushed his hands away. His
\neyes widened with glee as the animals moved closer.<\/font><\/p>\n

The
\nfirst to reach them was the mountain lion. She carried something in her mouth.
\nIt was a rabbit. She laid it at their feet and turned away, yellow eyes
\nflashing. The bear lumbered towards them next. In his mouth were two rainbow
\ntrout. He laid them before the trembling couple, snorted and sniffled, and then
\nturned back to the shadows. Then came the heron, looking for all intensive
\npurposes like a tall, skinny butler. He stepped his long, remarkable strides,
\nand in his outstretched wings was held a bowl of pure, cold water. He offered
\nit without spilling a drop. And so, one by one the animals came bearing gifts
\nof wild berries, salads of dandelion greens and edible flowers, and even
\nfreshly baked bread from\u2014from\u2014the couple never found out where from. And lastly
\ncame the reindeer and the wolf. The reindeer carried a wreath of glowing
\ncandles in her antlers. With the utmost care she laid it before them. It
\nilluminated their tear-stained faces. The wolf took his place beside the family
\nand stood guard as they began to eat.<\/font><\/p>\n

And so
\nthat night they feasted on a meal lovingly prepared by the animals. They had
\nnever had such a nourishing meal.<\/font><\/p>\n

After
\nthey had eaten and drank their fill, the wolf disappeared into the cave of the
\nnight. And the couple laid back in the road to sleep. The darkness was almost
\ncomplete as they stared exhausted into the tree-branch laced sky. Then all at
\nonce the trees leaned forward and down with their branches. The couple
\nscreamed, but then realized the trees were opening their arms in offering\u2014they
\nwere giving them a place to nestle for the night. <\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

The
\ncouple looked at each other and then carefully stood and stepped into the
\nwaiting branches. The trees lifted them instantly high off the ground. The air
\ncaressed the little trinity of humanity as it rose, higher into the night sky.
\nThat night, they slept like baby birds in the gently swaying trees. <\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

It was
\nthe child who awoke when he heard the earth singing the sweetest of lullabies.
\nIt was a song of crickets and of night birds and frogs, it was the song of the
\npadded steps of animals, it was the song of the river flowing somewhere in the
\ndarkness. As he listened, he felt the earth holding the roots of their tree
\nwith all of the love and tenacity of a mother swaddling her baby. <\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

And so
\nit was the child who felt the arms of the moon reaching down and lifting them
\neven higher.<\/font><\/p>\n

Her
\nembrace was like refreshing silver water pouring slowly over them. And as the
\nmoon cradled the little family, the child laughed as he watched the Milky Way
\nswooping her star-fringed arms and gathering them all\u2014the mother and father, the
\nbabe, the animals, the trees, the earth, and the moon into her gently dancing
\narms.<\/font><\/p>\n

And
\nthe baby reached up and brushed her face, tracing his fingers through her
\nstar-dappled hair. And as he did, his eyes caught site of the universe turning
\ntowards them, carrying them along in the perfect folds of his cloak of shadows
\nand light.<\/font><\/p>\n

And
\nthe child laughed. He laughed as he saw the Creator of All holding them
\ntenderly in cupped hands. And as he took in this marvelous vision, he sank into
\nthe cradle of his parents arms and knew all of this was within himself. He held
\nit all\u2014the animals, the trees, the earth, the moon, the Milky Way, the
\nuniverse, and the Creator–in his heart. Within him was one elaborate tapestry
\nof wonder and perfection. He knew he treasured it all inside, and with that
\nthought, he went to sleep in the dear, innocent arms of his mother and father. <\/font><\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

Merry Christmas.<\/font><\/p>\n

Joseph
<\/font><\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n\"\"
\n<\/form>\n

Copyright Joseph Anthony of the Wonder Child Blog<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Embrace A Christmas Story By Joseph Anthony   They walked all day. Miles they came taking turns carrying the child. As the mother and father moved cautiously through the darkening woods they ached with fatigue. And when their plodding steps slowed to a halt they couldn\u2019t help it, they sat down to rest right […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[16],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thewonderchildblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thewonderchildblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thewonderchildblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thewonderchildblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thewonderchildblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=52"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/thewonderchildblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thewonderchildblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=52"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thewonderchildblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=52"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thewonderchildblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=52"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}