Bear witness this Christmas

This holiday season, as you go about in the hurly burly of festivities, do remember to take a moment to slow down and ask about the people around you. While your world may be set ablaze with the lights, the parties, and the spirit of the Yuletide season, many are going through the darkest times of their lives. The winter nights are long, the cold foreboding. Remember to welcome people to the hearth of your fires, to share the glow of your heart. The holiday commercials may dictate for us the norm to laugh and be merry. Yet it is just important, just as needed, if not more so, to share our burdens, to reach out a hand, to cry together, and to remind those who are alone, are in need, in sickness, in sorrow , or in trouble that they are in fact not alone. Christ, born of a humble birth, is the allegorical anticipated hope. May we embody the star that not only lead the wise men to worship him, but to those bowed low in search of salvation. Bear witness, bear witness not only to the good of our year, but bear witness to the struggles of those around you, for they are real and worthwhile. Bear witness to them who fight silently, bear witness to those who put on a straight face that you may have a smile on yours. Sometimes all it takes is a casual hello, a knowing smile, and a simple exchange of words to speak volumes; to say "I see you and I acknowledge you."