Thursday, December 18, 2025
Merry Christmas, Friend,
It's the Smart Edit!
The First Christmas was an invasion. The Second Advent will complete what began.
A quick word before we begin…
Between ongoing client work and completing a Christmas devotional (Christmas 365), the pace shifted. But the purpose hasn’t.
The Smart Edit exists to help us cut through noise, sharpen discernment, and think clearly under Christ’s Lordship. That need hasn’t diminished. It’s intensified.
This issue: God’s purpose in your life operates by a Deeper Magic.
May You Know the “Deeper Magic” this Christmastime
In The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, C.S. Lewis speaks of the “Deeper Magic.”
After Aslan gives his life in Edmund’s place, the Witch believes she has won—until Aslan rises. Lucy and Susan are told:
“She knew the Deep Magic, but she did not know the Deeper Magic from before the Dawn of Time.”
It’s with that image in mind that I offer this simple prayer: that the Deeper Magic would be made known to you this Christmastime.
My faith is that you’ll encounter something fresh—the power of the Incarnation of Christ, and what it means for you now, not just in memory but in lived reality.
The Little King vs. Herod
Each week, we highlight a Kingdom Dynamic, a key insight into how God’s Kingdom works in real life …
King Herod could not sleep—not merely because of failing health or political pressure, but because something had entered the world that was beyond his control.
A new king had been born.
Herod possessed everything power can offer: armies, Rome’s backing, and wealth. He also possessed an absence of moral restraint.
Yet when the wise men arrived asking, “Where is He who has been born King of the Jews?” his authority was instantly exposed as shallow. He knew how human power works. He did not understand how the all-powerful God works.
There is a “Deeper Magic” at work in the Kingdom of God.
God’s purpose in your life operates by a Deeper Magic, greater than fear and stronger than force.
God warned the Magi to return by another route. He warned Joseph to flee by night. Direction preceded deliverance. Protection flowed not from strength, but from alignment.
The Child was preserved not because Mary and Joseph were formidable, but because God guards what He purposes.
Opposition still comes this way. It may arrive through pressure at work, resistance in relationships, spiritual interference, or circumstances that seem designed to block what God has spoken over your life.
But the deeper truth remains: HIGHER PURPOSE outruns the power of man. When God speaks, He also guides. When He ordains, He makes a way.
Discernment—listening and responding—keeps us moving within that Deeper Magic.
Adapted from Christmas 365, a new Advent devotional releasing Christmas week.
Prayer
Christ, dwell within me in an ever-increasing way. Holy Spirit, release the Deeper Magic in and through me. Amen.
We’re using the New American Standard Bible for Scripture quotes, unless we note otherwise.
Morning as Threshold — Chriscynthia Ferrel-Colacino
Dr. Chriscynthia Ferrell-Colacino, a reader of The Smart Edit, writes poetry that attends to time the way Scripture does. Measured not by urgency, but by meaning.
Her lines linger at creation. Sabbath rest. And the daily mercy that arrives with morning light. In her new collection, By Morning Life (available on Amazon.com), she invites readers: “Man and God at the beginning, and evening and morning together, every day.”
Her poetry and reflection meet in the stillness of early hours, offering renewal without spectacle. Hope without haste.
Perfect for January and the start of a new year, these poems remind us that beginnings are often quiet, and God is most faithfully encountered through attention. Read sample.
More creative content from Chriscynthia is on the horizon too!
On the POD
Have Yourself a Very 'Chaordic' Christmas: When Chaos Meets Order with Terry Hoggard (Ep 359). Terry Hoggard helps us see Christmas as the ultimate disruptive innovation—an ongoing dance between heaven and earth.
Follow the link to listen. The JesusSmartX podcast is also available on your favorite listening app including Spotify.
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Best,
Brian Del Turco
