Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all of you.

It’s that time of year again isn’t it? Gifts and wrapping paper and bows. Parties and family get togethers and intimate lunches. Traveling and shopping and UPS. Maybe snow or rain or sunshine and 70 degrees. What a time to be alive and to celebrate.

As I sit here and think about the coming days and weeks I am struck by how much it still means to me without all of the chaos and activity. I won’t be shopping or wrapping gifts or participating in any family get togethers, but I will be part of the true picture of the season, the very reason it exists…to see the arrival of our Lord and Savior. How wonderful for mankind.

Sadly though, I’ll also see those here who, like me, will be alone for Christmas. There are so many people out there who will be alone; many wishing they were home or that some part of home would come to them. I think that it is these very people who will need us most. We, as the body of the church, need to reach out to those who have no one reaching for them today. We need to bring the Spirit of Christmas to them. Please consider visiting a shut-in or going to a retirement home or long term health care facility and sitting with someone there who never gets visitors. Just sit and talk to them or listen. Maybe take them a card that says simply “Merry Christmas” and sign it with a heart. Perhaps you can adopt a family through your church and provide them with a meal or warm clothing or invite them to your home to share in a meal there. It’s all such a little thing to bring Christ to another life, especially this time of year.

I hope and pray that all of you reading this are blessed this season and throughout the coming year.

Listen to (click the link)  “I’ll Be Home For Christmas“, it contains a line that touches me very deeply. It says, “I’ll be home for Christmas if only in my dreams.” That’s how I and others will be home this year: in dreams. Perhaps you can make someone’s dream come true this year. Reach out…

~jdoe