Dear Tom:
I hope you and your family had a very Merry Christmas. I know we did. Having most of my family here, and staying close to our only daughter, Rebecca, who couldn’t come to NC, by e-mail and photos over the internet made this Christmas very special. As Christmas approached, I began to think that the Roman’s got the calendar wrong. I thought, the day we celebrate Christ coming into our lives should be the first day of the year. I know this is not very politically correct, a lot of other faiths have different New Years; but this year I was anxious to get on with a new beginning.
Now that I am settled into this week between Christmas and New Year’s enjoying my family. (We are all together in a cabin in the NC Mountains. A wonderful gift to our family from my son and daughter-in-law.) I am having second thoughts about accelerating the start of 2011. This week gives me a period to prepare for the new, and let go of the old. 2010 has been a tough year with the transplant, a move to a new home, and an uncertain financial future. Yet because of all the disruptions, we also have so much to look forward to in the future.
It is like my dear friend who lost his home, and everything he owned in a fire. After absorbing the magnitude of his tragedy and comforting his family, he told me he could now focus on building the dream home he always wanted to build. I think that he articulated for me one of the hidden messages of Christmas. Christmas is a new beginning. We comemmerate and renew the understanding of the magnitude of Christ coming into our lives, we enjoy the comfort of our family and friends,and then we are able to follow our dream and God’s dream for us. We begin to build a new life every year with him at the center. A gift that continues throughout the year, and then is regifted to us again the next Christmas.
Your friend, Webb
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