Oh, Christmas has come and gone, but its scent lingers: spiced cider, evergreen, bayberry candles, cookies baking, popcorn, ham and scalloped potatoes, chestnuts roasting, and hot chocolate. Christmas has come, and its scent lingers: the aroma of newspaper casually read by a crackling fire or the smell of a new book received as a gift; pungent chemicals of instant pictures developing, or tempera paint on a homemade gift; play- dough, silly putty, gift perfume or cologne, shoe polish applied generously for a Christmas Eve shine. Christmas has come and its scent lingers.

In this season of angels, Paul proclaims that it is not with the angels that Christ is concerned but with men and women -- children of Abraham. "For surely it is not with angels that he is concerned, but with the descendant…