"In the Days of the Angels...

... The hair on the necks of the people,
Didn't it stand like static?"

That's the beginning of a favorite Christmas poem, which gave its name to a favorite book by Walter Wangerin Jr., In the Days of the Angels.

This is the book that somehow drove me to the keyboard to begin a novel of my own, which was later published as To Dance in the Desert. It was January of 2003, and I still had not found the holiday spirit. Better late than never; better sooner than summer. So I picked up Wangerin's book, and was escorted into the wonder of Christmas.

In a recent interview I was asked to state my life's message, and I stuttered around till I found something, anything I could say that would pass for an answer. I botched it, was what I did. Recently I looked at the tag line I put on my header months ago. "Duh!" said I to myself, sure that the interviewer had expected exactly that phrase: "Don't miss the wonder."

And it's not bad, for a life's message. (Though, I don't know, mightn't it be like the name on the white stone of Revelations, that only God knows?)

If I could, I would buy a copy of this book for each of you, because it is filled with poetry and stories that will lift you past the stars. I wish I could give that to you this Christmas, but I must at least point the way. Take some time to look around, and to read a good book. Don't miss the wonder.