December Newsletter article

Here is my December church newsletter article.

Merry Christmas

So the title isn’t so original, but I can’t help it. Once in a while, I have to be predictable so the unpredictability doesn’t become predictable. I’ll pause for a moment to let you chew on that one.

It’s good to sit back and really let things sink in or they do become old hat. Times like Christmas can get that way. We always get together with family and we always open our presents at certain times and we always go to Christmas Eve worship and we always sit in the same place. Have you just sat and wondered about how we got to where we are?

There are times when the routines just don’t work anymore. Christmas can bring out the best and the worst for families. It is often the hardest time for widows and widowers as they adjust to life without their spouse. Estrangements hit especially hard when one sees the happiness on the faces of families brought together in celebrations. There is no Hallmark greeting for those situations.

I just received an email, one of those mass forwards, from my aunt in Texas. It was a listing of definitions of love according to kids. Way down at the bottom was a story about author and lecturer Leo Buscaglia who once talked about a contest he was asked to judge. The purpose of the contest was to find the most caring child. The winner was a four year old child whose next door neighbor was an elderly gentleman who had recently lost his wife. Upon seeing the man cry, the little boy went into the old gentleman's yard, climbed onto his lap, and just sat there. When his Mother asked what he had said to the neighbor, the little boy said, "Nothing, I just helped him cry."

It’s easy at this time of year to avoid the people and places that seem to be the opposite of the “spirit” of the season. I think we avoid these situations because we don’t know what to say or do. This Christmas, the greatest gift I have received comes from a nameless four year old that showed me what to do. The greatest gift this Christmas can be “nothing, I just helped him cry.”