I am today years old as I finally realize what made my childhood so magic. The delights of the holidays (spring, summer, fall, and winter) were given to me by my mother. She herself was magic, and although we were poor, we lived with an abundance of love and security.

My favorite holidays, Easter and Christmas, were especially magnificent because Christ was exemplified in my mother’s countenance and care. I still remember my very first Easter speech taught to me by my mother. “The story of Easter is never old, no matter how many times it is told.” And the splendidness of Christmas was manifested through my mother’s gentle guidance from a childish belief in Santa Clause to the profound realization that “Christ is the reason for the season.”

As I experience my second Christmas without my mother’s physical presence, I still feel the magic of her faith in Christ which never failed her through the many difficult times we experienced as a family. And it is her Heavenly presence that carries me through the loneliness I feel as I struggle to live without her.

The magic that my mother created for us as children and throughout our time on earth with her never leaves me. I still feel her gently guiding me to keep building my own faith in Christ, because our faith is all that bridges the gap between the sorrows of this world and eternal joy in His presence.