We safely arrived home yesterday from an inter-state road trip. From southwestern, temperate temperatures to a snow covered landscape, we have returned to the Midwest. The highlight of the holiday was spending priceless time with some of our family. After many years of adjusting the lenses of living to an ever changing view of life, I still see that family is truly a treasure. That family grows with vital new blood that brings the essential hope for the future. After all the shared laughter, the shared meals and the shared time, it is the shared embraces that linger warm in my soul. I highly recommend hugging your loved ones as if it were the last time you will ever hug them; one day it will be.
After surviving my youthful liberal years, I have, with the help and grace of God, through his Son, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, cleaned up my soul to reveal the necessity of tradition. In many ways healthy, family tradition has been thrown out with the dysfunctional, abusive family lifestyle. I found myself recovering what I believe is the love that flows through souls of all our family members. My post-holiday Christmas wish is that we can recover what has been lost, our shared meaning of love of family, our understanding of what is true and our knowledge of certain death into all eternity. For the awareness of all of these things will bring an urgent desire to live well today.
On this fourth day of Christmas, I bring not four calling birds, rather the wish that all people will carry on the hope and love that the Christ child has brought and continues to bring into this world. Live each day as if it is Christmas!
