"Don't ask what the world needs.  Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it.  Because the world needs people who have come alive."  -- Howard Thurman, Theologian, Civil Rights Pioneer

Yesterday while checking my email, the browser on my computer screen popped up with a story about online shopping sites that will still deliver by Christmas.  The text was accompanied by a picture of a handsome, smiling man, cardboard box balanced jauntily on his shoulder, ready to bound up my frosty front stoop to drop or pick up packages.

I figured the man on the screen had to be a well paid model -- no deliveryman I've ever seen less than a week before Christmas ever looked that calm!  After all, just moments before seeing his shot, I was sitting on my couch, surrounded by piles of presents, packing boxes, bubble wrap and tape feverishly trying to get everything ready to ship.  While the Christmas cookies I was eating helped, I found myself mildly panicked as I wondered how these presents would get where they were headed on time. It would take a small miracle for all of them to reach their destinations by Dec. 25th.

That is when I remembered that Christmas is all about "special deliveries"  -- just not the kind I was struggling with.  Christmas is not about giving material gifts.  It is about giving birth to God's gifts of love, compassion and joy and sharing them with the world.  In the process, we become more authentic and alive. And, as Howard Thurman writes, the world needs people who are truly alive.

Over the years, many of us have been taught to pay more attention to the story of the Wise Men than we do to the account of Mary giving birth to Jesus during the holidays.  After all, the story of the Wise Men inspires us to give and receive presents!  And there is nothing fundamentally wrong with that -- but most of us know that giving birth is something much more mysterious, powerful and important.

Mary gave birth to the baby Jesus in a lowly stable.  She brought God's love into the world.  Thinkers in the early Christian Church gave her the ancient Greek title "theotokos" or Godbearer. It is a title I love because we are all called to be Godbearers too.

God is calling each one of us today in our own way to "give birth" to love in the world, and each one of us can use our unique God-given talents to make that happen.

I invite you to look and listen for ways in which you can be a Godbearer this holiday season.  Give birth to compassion as you reach out to someone else living with a movement disorder.  Give life to new friendships as you step out and enjoy people and activities you may have avoided before because of your Parkinson's, Dystonia, Tremor or other condition.  Help deliver hope as you donate to a local food bank.  Give birth to joy as you feel truly alive and know in your heart that you are exactly "what the world needs."

I wish you and yours peace and love during this holiday season and in the New Year.

Blessings.

Lindsay