Friend, Christmas sometimes puts people in a reflective mood. It has been known to prompt overtures of reconciliation within families. It has also proved to be a time for mending old rifts, offering apologies, or expressing honest gratitude.

In what was likely a Christmas change of heart, someone eleven years ago, (just prior to Christmas), returned in the mail a gold wedding band and a pair of pearl and diamond earrings to a well known jewellery shop - 34 years after stealing them.

A letter arrived at the jewellery shop on December 17, 2002, along with this unsigned note: "Enclosed are two items I stole from you in 1968. I'm very sorry and I should not have taken your property. The pieces belong to you NOT me. I was wrong and I want to apologize for my actions."

Well, reading that story put me in mind of this anonymous piece:

     This Christmas,
     Mend a quarrel.
     Seek out a forgotten friend.
     Write a love letter.
     Share some treasure.
     Give a soft answer.
     Find the time.
     Forgive an enemy.
     Listen.
     Apologize if you were wrong.
     Think first of someone else.
     Be kind and gentle.
     Laugh a little.
     Laugh a little more.
     Take pleasure in beauty and wonder.
     Speak your love.
     Speak it again.
     Speak it still once again.

Friend, the Christmas Season isn't really about trees, silver bells, and parties. It is a miracle that happens wherever love and hope and wonder are brought into the world. Christmas happens in all the little things when people are real and available to each other. That's when love is born and God-is-with-us. And, when you really stop to think about it, love coming into the world is what Christmas is all about. This is a wonderful time of the year. If God is using it to stir holy impulses in you, please don't resist Him. It is another of His many good gifts to you.

Thank you for taking the time to read the articles we have been privileged to share with you in this column during 2013. May this Christmas Season, and every season for you and your family, begin with the One whose love knows no end.

Your friend, Ron Bainbridge, on behalf of Discovering A BETTER LIFE MINISTRIES, P.O. Box 1540, Albany, WA 6331 or Email: abl-alb@omninet.net.au

WORRYING does not take away tomorrow's TROUBLES;
it takes away today's PEACE.
Anonymous