The Wish Book

When I was growing up, every year around Thanksgiving the mailman would deliver what my mom called “the wish book.” It was a marvelous compendium: a sampling of wonders from every corner of the world — or so it seemed at the time.

The cover and the first 20 or so pages portrayed languid ladies in mink coats and cashmere sweaters arriving at the theater or responding to a friendly greeting from the maitre’d at an expensive restaurant. In other settings handsome fellows lounging about in Harris tweed jackets and Italian wool trousers shared a joke among themselves. Wherever this was — and it was unlike any place I’d ever seen — life was obviously good. Everyone was sleek, svelte, and terrifically self-satisfied.

Further along the reader came to the more affordable items. Here the models smiled directly into the camera like relatives in a family photo, posing in their wool-blend cardigans, A-line skirts, flannel shirts, chenille robes, comfy slippers.... Regular folks clad in regular clothing that your parents would actually consider buying.

Phooey.

At Last!

Then — finally! — the Mother Lode, the Holy Grail, Perfect Bliss: an entire section dedicated to childhood’s most cherished fantasies. Model trains and building sets, baby dolls and bb guns, toy soldiers and trampolines and teddy bears, red wagons and rocking horses and roller skates and robots and rocket ships....

Anything and everything one’s heart could desire was spread out across those glossy pages — culminating (at least in my eyes) in the newest, most elegantly-clad Barbie. She even had her very own sports car.

Wow!

Memories, Dreams, and Imagination

I haven’t seen a Spiegel® catalog in years, but I can still vividly recall the thrill of scanning its pages; beholding the marvels and amazing possibilities depicted between its covers. It was proof that there was a whole other world out there. And — if the situation was right — you could have almost anything you wanted.

Of course it all depended on the situation and on what it was precisely that you wanted....

But the idea was set in motion: things can be different.

There are other possibilities, other options; we don’t have to do what we’ve always done, we don’t have to live the way we’ve always lived. Things can be different.

What If?

There’s no question that the retailer in Chicago, Illinois was intending to sell stuff. The purpose of that catalogue was to convince us that buying things would change/improve our lives. Their motive was marketing, but their efforts served to feed our imagination.

We daydreamed, fantasized, and made-believe. We played at being an astronaut, a fashion model, a nurse, a musician, a lawyer, a butcher, a baker, an Indian chief. We wondered about the future, we thought about what we might do; we dreamed of the grand and heroic and impressive deeds we would accomplish. We spent hours and hours imagining how things could be.

And in our imaginings, it was all very good.

The Forgotten Skill

But those times were long ago for most of us. We’re older now, and wiser. We don’t daydream much and, if we do, our imaginings are colored by worry and “practical concerns.”

We’ve seen the way the world works, we know its many messes and mistakes, and our heartfelt wish is just to get through the day with our families, friends, and homes intact. We’ve forgotten what it feels like to imagine a different way of being, a different way of doing things, a different outcome from that which we’ve come to expect.

We’ve forgotten how to dream.

The Prophet’s Wish Book

But the prophet Isaiah didn’t forget.

Even after Israel had been overrun by foreign powers, after its king had joined destructive alliances, after the people had suffered long years of warfare, the devastation of their cities, and onerous taxation, Isaiah could imagine something different. For him the Torah was a “wish book”: a compilation of the great and glorious relationship between the Eternal One and God’s people. It described a promise of lasting love, mercy, and forgiveness.

Not in spite of his worries and concerns, but because of them, Isaiah recalled the invincible power and amazing possibility that is God’s. He recalled the joys and successes that Israel had known, and he imagined a time when they would experience those graces again. He called upon God with hope, courage, and a vivid imagining of what could be.

Isaiah did not forget how to dream.

And in his imaginings, everything would be very good again.

Wishing for Christmas

My wish is that during this “countdown to Christmas” every catalogue, advertisement, and commercial become for us a Holy Reminder of the Child Jesus.

I can imagine all of our lives filled with love, with courage, with awe and gratitude at God’s mercy and compassion. We have already received the most wonderful, truly divine, Gift: let us dare to dream of a world in which the blessed Infant is truly King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

Virtual hugs and real-time blessings,

Deborah +

This Week's Suggested Spiritual Exercise

What is your wish for Christmas?

Special Thanks

Special thanks to Pastor Bob L. for reminding me about the power of “wish books.”