As I sit here on a beautiful day in the beginning of Autumn, I'm trying to come up with a sparkling, memorable, profound, message to share with you during this Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's triduum.

By now, you've probably already heard the call to "put Christ back in Christmas" at least once this season. I usually grimace at the annual warning that as a people or society we've lost our spiritual connectivity with the reason. Me, I'm finding our broadening of cultures in the States truly fascinating and enjoyable. With this melding, tree ornaments and decorations are certainly taking on non-traditional shapes and colors! And, seeing people from around the world celebrate Christmas, whether their religious background was Abrahamic, an Asian religion or philosophy, or none at all, is becoming more and more, a real, spiritual event for me.

Is it too heretical to wonder if we could seriously be celebrating at Christmas more than the anniversary of the birth of the 'Jesus of history?' We profess that God became / becomes one with our humanity, as written in the prologue of John's gospel. Christmas then, for me, unfolds as a wonderful celebration that the depth of the human spirit, yours and mine, is the Ruah. Namaste, from the Hindu, I bow before the Divinity within you.

Honoring that spirit in others is one of the reasons we bring them gifts. Some cultures, harkening from times past, prefer to wrap gifts in squares of brightly colored cloth, simply knotted on top. Some gifts come wrapped in exquisite paper and the finest of hand-made bows exhibiting lots of thought and creativity. Others may come in tissue paper tied with string ribbon. Still others may even be wrapped in the Sunday comics. Some ribbons are curled; others are wired together to hold their shape; still others are pre-made stick-on bows from a bag. Then there are some packages that come without ribbons or bows. Some come from stores where they can be professionally wrapped. Some gifts are wrapped well in advance. And then, there are some that are wrapped in the car on the way to be given. If you were to describe yourself as a wrapped package waiting to be given, which image would you look like?

God's gift of life to us is our call to minister to the lives of others. We are gifts for each other... in all our ordinariness... in all our splendor.

Namaste ... and Merry Christmas!

Russ Ditzel

Russ would love to hear your thoughts. He can be reached at crditzel@corpus.org