I am walking around with Christmas carols running around in my head – and it’s all your fault. You, my friends, have put them there. Food grows short. So my wife’s church group founds a fund with $500 – doles out several thousand dollars to food providers – and still has $800 left. This loaves & fishes tale comes courtesy of your generosity. Telephone calls come in from business folks wanting nothing more than to wish me well and chat about how I am doing. My agent asks, “What are these Prometheus Social Enterprise Awards winners of yours doing that’s so great?” I blurt, “because of them, gun violence in Yonkers drops 86 percent, warring factions forge a prosperous peace in Mozambique, and our planet gets reforested with a trillion (yes, trillion) trees planted by homeless people who are gaining income and purpose….and a lot more – would you like me to elaborate?”
Getting the message here? I certainly am. Peace on earth and good will towards all is not only being wished for – it is actively being engineered all around us. It is a precious and vital ingredient in our humanity that we pour all we believe to be good – all we desperately want to occur – into one cradle filled with newborn hope. But we are a restless species. We do not – cannot – sit and passively wish for the star to rise. We roll up our sleeves and hoist it aloft. And so many of us are making darn sure that light will shine before all people, that by Heaven’s name, we can see the glow pass from one heart to another.
Now there’s another miracle. It’s contagious. All that compassionate energy and sweat somehow has gone viral – and races through us. We see one individual shouldering some burden to help his fellow, and some instinctive seed within urges us to shoulder in and lend our aid. I may not really understand that seed, but I’ve got a pretty good idea of who planted it. And for that, I give thanks this Christmas to the Good Lord, who smiles (and doubtless laughs) on us – and my utmost gratitude to all of you whom I see constantly, daily reflecting His light. So rest ye merry and have a joyous Noel….ooops! There come those carols again.
Blessings to you all,
Bart Jackson