Willow Brook Christian Communities

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Reflections is published quarterly by Willow Brook Christian Communities
Editor: Teri Ryan

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Contact the editor, Teri Ryan.
Phone: (740) 201-5640
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Inside the Christmas 2011 issue:

• A Christmas Prayer by Larry Harris, CEO
  
• Wayne's Trail
  
• It's a Matter of Balance
  
• Beyond Golden Celebration
  
• Gifts of Love - Memorial Contributions- August 23 - November 20,2011
  
• Village Director named Administrator of Year
  
• Five Perfect Scores!

A Christmas Prayer
by Larry Harris, CEO

Go, tell it on the mountain,
Over the hills and everywhere
Go, tell it on the mountain,
That Jesus Christ is born.

John Wesley Work, Jr.

      A tender Christmas call sweeps across the land, imploring faithful pilgrims to clear room in their hearts for the sweet child of Bethlehem.  The yuletide appeal has criss-crossed the universe over two millennia as a steady, unchanging plea for peace and justice, and a chance at redemption from the calamitous fate we all are due.
      Cradled in the manger of an ancient Judean barn was our last and only hope, a living testimony that at long last love had come into the world.  Eternity was bisected that night.  An era of light and promise was cleaved from the age of darkness and despair.  Go, tell it on the mountain!
Long before trembling shepherds knelt in awe, and curious wise men journeyed from afar with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh, the divine birth was foretold by the prophets of old.  The baby lying in that feeding crib was a promise kept.  That promise became the man Jesus who, with spittle and mud, gave sight to the blind; he made the crippled whole with a simple healing touch; and he forgave unconditionally a woman of the night who washed his feet with her tears.
      Ask that broken woman about Jesus.  She could tell you that the good news of Christ cleanses the sin-stained soul of even a hint of defiling grime.  It lifts the downtrodden and humbles the proud, but only if they allow themselves to be brought low.  A heart must be open to the call – otherwise Christmas is nothing more than a season of pretty lights and presents.
      And so, as one of the forgiven, I send to you a warm heartfelt greeting this Christmas.

      Christmas 2011 is a milestone of sorts for me.  This is my fifth bonus Christmas, my fifth Christmas that should not have been, my fifth post-cancer Christmas.  I returned home from my final surgery on Christmas Eve-Eve 2006. My masked malignancy was discovered by fluke, and I narrowly dodged a bullet.  Things so easily could have swung the other way.  I count each day now as a gift, an undue bonus if you will, for I know I am living on time stolen from a future that should not have been mine.  For as long as I live, Christmas will mark the anniversary of my deliverance.    
      Five is a big number for us survivors.  If you can make it to five with no recurrence, you stand a pretty good chance of finishing the race.
Still, I never take anything for granted these days, for I realize how quickly it all could be snatched away.  Life is all we have ever known, so it seems eternal.  But you and I both are living on borrowed time, and we never know when the loan will come due.
      Even though there now are seven billion of us packed on Spaceship Earth, a single human life is precious and downright incomprehensible.  The odds of your being here are improbable in the extreme.  You won the lottery at conception.  Of the millions and millions of possible gene combinations that could have come about, it was yours that fused, and you emerged.  The chance of your coming into existence was less than your now being struck by lightning.  But you beat out legions of potential humans, and here you are.
We are the lucky ones.  So let’s embrace life and recognize it for the miracle it is.

      On Christmas morning, in the tradition of the worshipful shepherds of long ago, you will find me on my knees – figuratively, if not literally – humbled and bowed in gratitude.  I will send up a Christmas prayer of thanksgiving.  I will express thanks that I have been granted yet one more year with the ones I love.  I can hardly believe it, yet here I am.  Thank you dear God, thank you.
      And I will give thanks for the child that came into the world two thousand and eleven years ago.  Oh my goodness.  What if he had never been born?  Where would we be?  What would become of us?  We are incapable of navigating eternity by ourselves.  Thank you dear God, thank you.