Merry Christmas

It's challenging to know what to expect about the weather when you live in the Midwest.  Today may be one of the warmest days I've experienced at Christmas since my relocation nearly eight years ago. For us, 60º is a heatwave and we're all planning to bask in the sun while we celebrate the most important birthday of all times.

We opened our gifts early this year in order to accommodate busy Holiday schedules and all three of our adult children gave me what I asked for – books, the kind that inspires personal growth.  Our youngest son gave me something so enticing that I couldn't put it down and finished just in time to go to church for Christmas eve.  It was written by Victor E. Frankl, a holocaust survivor.  "Man's Search for the Meaning of Life" is an ideal book to read during the Christmas season because the author demonstrates that every life is meaningful no matter how challenging the circumstances appear to be.

For some, the Holidays may not be all that joyful.  Maybe it's because they have trouble finding something to be hopeful for.  Maybe they've lost something or someone and they struggle to get past that loss.  Frankl wrote that one of the greatest difficulties for holocaust survivors who returned to their old lives was that the very things they were hopeful for were gone.  Family.  Friends.  In some cases, the total destruction of their old ways of living.  One of Frankl's students asked him what the meaning of his life was and he asked his student to write down his thoughts before answering.  "Read your answer to the group," Frankl said.

The student stood up and shared, "The meaning of your life is to help others find theirs."  It was an exact match.  And that is what Christmas is all about.  There was this lowly birth in a remote area to parents who were forced to stay in a place reserved for animals.  No family.  No pleasantries.  In many ways, the conditions weren't much different from the concentration camps where innocent people were forced to stay because they happened to be related to the same family having a child in Bethlehem 2,000 years ago.  That child gives us hope.  The door to Heaven is now open.  Merry Christmas.  Have a great day.