Rain clouds hover over Downtown Los Angeles – December 2014
Photo Credit: ABC7 Eyewitness News

 

In the Northern Hemisphere, today is the first day of winter. The North Pole will tilt 23.5 degrees away from the Sun, making the Winter Solstice the shortest day or the longest night of the year.

I’ve got the wintry blues. In Southern California, we’ve been getting much needed rain. But the gray, heavily loaded sky crushes my Christmas spirit. The long nights cloak me in gloom. To add to my wintry woes, some bad news has further chilled my Christmas cheer. Such is the ever-changing journey called life. Anxiety can quickly smother our joy.

Nothing changes our lives more than the birth of a child. The parents of Jesus must have had some inkling of the anxiety and sorrows that lay ahead for them. Yet, it was a journey they were willing to undertake.

Across our planet and here in the United States, millions of families are hurting because of a life-threatening illness or injury, death of a loved one, loss of income or shelter, or from some other unexpected misfortune that can befall us along the way. Our children should not have to go hungry, live on the street, languish in a refugee camp, become victims of human predators or war lords, or lack opportunities to develop their talents and skills.

During this Christmas Season of goodwill, I wish that our hurting families will soon experience the joy that the Christ Child brings into our hearts and homes.

I wish, too, that we adults everywhere would wake up to our responsibility of providing a habitable, secure, and peaceful world for our children to thrive.

A child is born to us. We know not what gifts he or she will bring to our family, to our community, to our world. Let us treat that child as we would treat the Christ Child.

Seasons greetings to you and yours.