Christmas Bishop, The by Winifred M. Kirkland (1872 - 1943)

This 1913 story is far more than a Christmas tale. It is a story about spiritual wisdom; the seeking of wisdom, the getting of wisdom, even when the seeking and the getting is obscure. Henry Collinton is an 81 year old, widowed, Episcopal Church bishop. The story opens on the morning of the Bishop’s last Christmas and ends with his death that night. We see him encounter four to him important people throughout the day, three friends and the Nazarene, the Christ, he has followed all his life. “Yet these things the Bishop did not know, for God was showing him more beautiful things, even as all his life He had been showing him the things that are more beautiful than fulfilment. All happily he sat there in his old study chair, looking toward the eastward window. His face had changed to a beauty of light. Gently on the chair arms rested the lean old hands, as very softly the gray room brightened at the coming of the dawn.” - Summary by David Wales