Only 36 more ??? Days 'til Christmas

It's not Thanksgiving yet, but my neighbor has Christmas lights adorning his home, and three big wreaths on his garage, and up on the bluff across from our home, is a huge evergreen tree adorned with multi-colored lights which are on 24/7 until sometime after Christmas, I am sure. At our house, we have decided it is about time to get out the 8 Christmas trees that will be in various places throughout the house, and to put away the fall color stuff--but we will wait until the end of the Thanksgiving weekend to do that.

And somewhere in the midst of all of that, we will pause for a moment to Say Thanks to God for the manifest blessings we have received during the past year. The blessing of a new home; the blessing of a new church; the blessing of new and old friends; and most of all the blessing of being able to communicate with so many via something called the internet.

But in the still, quiet times of this weekend, we need to also think about those who are not the beneficiaries of the comfort blessings that we enjoy. And we need to find ways to reach out to them and make them a little less unblessed than they are. I can think of a few ways: 1) volunteer at the food pantry where you can meet them; 2) donate a used coat to the clothes closet, so someone will have a warmer winter; 3) be part of the Christmas Miracle that will occur at Community of Joy this December. And there are many more.

So--what do you think you might do for someone this Holiday season?