What are you waiting for?

I call December the month of waiting. Remember when you were a child? It seemed as if the wait for Christmas morning took FOREVER.

 You had a wish list. Something special you hoped would be under the tree. Maybe your family--as my daughter’s family did--held “tree time” at night, when you would turn out all but the Christmas tree lights and sit together in the magical dream of the holiday.

Or the holy-day, because for church-goers, December is also about another kind of waiting: when you light a candle each week to observe Advent, marking the time before the birth of the Christ child.

 Notice how important the word “child” is in describing December’s waiting time? Not only in December, but all year, let us honor the child within ourselves--and to remember
a child’s eyes are open to see miracles,
a child’s heart is open to experience joy, and
the Christ child--”The Christ in me”--is forever being born again when we pay attention to those around us in a loving compassionate way.