A Christmas Message

This is the best segue I can come up with to explain why I haven’t posted anything in a while – life happens. You see…I’m a fixer. If something is broken, I feel compelled to try and fix it. I am also the person my family and friends turn to when they need advice, an opinion or just someone to lean on. I’m not complaining. I’m happy to be there for people when they need me. However, as we all know, there is much in life that we can’t change or prevent – disease, heartbreak, death – and we all have to take the good with the bad. Too bad we can’t get equal doses of bad and good. My family and friends have had more than their share of the bad this year and I’ve suffered along with them, which explains my absence. I needed to take some time to deal with my emotions too.

This brings me to Christmas. I didn’t want the holiday to pass without sharing something with you. My aunt sent me these pictures of an albino fawn that some friends of hers found in rural Wisconsin several months ago. (Her friends claim albino deer are very rare – only one in a million births – but I couldn’t verify that.) The deer was in the road and they almost ran it over. Concerned, they pulled over to the side of the road to watch and see if it's mother would come, but she never showed up so they took it home. They were worried a car would hit it. They only kept it a few days, feeding it formula from a baby bottle, until they could find a rescue farm willing to take it in and raise it. The deer is safe now and will have a home for life.

I think mankind shares a commonality with this fawn that is especially meaningful during this holiday season. The fawn is rare and unique, but so are you and I and every person in this world. The fawn was also vulnerable and needed help. How often do we find ourselves in the same situation? We all need help at times and, equally important, we all have the capacity to help in some way.

That is the message I carry in my heart at Christmas. You may believe Jesus is the Messiah - or you may believe he is a prophet or important historical figure. Whatever you believe, Jesus was a loving role model of how we should all act toward one another. Our world would be a better place if we all remembered that no matter what our beliefs.

Merry Christmas.