Lydia

“Merry Christmas!”
“Why?”
“What do you mean why?”
“Why’s it merry?”
“You’re being stupid, we’re late you know…”
“Can you answer my question before we go?”
“Yes.”
“So?”
“What?”
“Oh God. Why is Christmas merry?”
“Oh! Um, well…you know…there are present and food.”
“Right…”
“And…lots of snow, and Mariah Carey’s ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You.’”
“Is there anything more?”
“How should I know?”
“I feel like…there’s something else to it.”
“If there is, no ones knows. Now let’s GO!”
“Do you think there’s a God?”
“What?”
“A God…is there one?”
“If you want there to be one, happy?”
“No.”
“Not many of us are so I can live with that. Ready?”
“For?”
“The Christmas party.”
“What’re we celebrating?”
“You’re very obnoxious today.”
“And you are very shallow. Do you pray?”
“Occasionally.”
“Why?”
“Because sometimes I want there to be someone looking out for me.”
“I look out for you.”
“I mean…someone bigger than us all. I don’t know. Sometimes I need help!”
“With?”
“My life.”
“Do you pray whenever you don’t need help?”
“Not really.”
“I think that if there was a God. I’d want him to love me.”
“Alright…”
“I’d want to be loved. I’d want to be filled up.”
“With?”
“I don’t know. All I know is that I’m empty. And I keep on lying to myself saying that I’m not.”
“I don’t fill you up?”
“Not completely, not eternally.”
“Fantastic”
“No, it’s not personal. No one else can.”
“Except?”
“God.”
“I think I heard once that Christmas is about a baby being born, the Messiah or something.
“That makes sense.”
“What does?”
“I think I remember now. The baby, wasn’t his name Jesus?”
“Possibly.”
“Wasn’t he God…in flesh?”
“Woah, watch what you say. That’s pretty radical.”
“Yeah. I think he came to help us. He had to.”
“And?”
“And…that he lowered himself to be a baby, to live with us and give us a choice.”
“What choice?”
“To believe him or not…that he’s the one that saves...that he was God and that he was perfect.”
“So how do you know he was perfect? Is there proof that he was God in flesh?”
“No.”
“Okay then, now let’s go!”
“There is little proof…but it isn’t about having proof. I think it’s about faith.”
“Whatever you say. Is he the one you’ve been looking for? To…I don’t know…fill you up?”
“I don’t know. I think…he’s been looking for me.”
“Well…I’m glad he’s found you, I guess. Ready to go?”
“Yeah. But…”
“What?”
“Merry Christmas…it really is.”