“Never tell a young person that anything cannot be done.  God may have been waiting centuries for someone ignorant enough of the impossible to do that very thing.”

– G. M. Trevelvan

Young children are generous.  It is their nature.  When they see the tears of another, their hearts reach out to help and soothe.  It is not until they have observed the adults around them that they learn to be selective in loving.  As adults, we seem to think it is our duty to educate the children in the ways of the world and see that they learn to discriminate when making the decision to love.  Not one of us can change the entire world, but each of us carries within us the small child whose voice cries out, “do something!”  We silence the voice because we think that the small things we are able to do are inadequate and really won’t make a difference to anyone.

I close my eyes and picture the block where I live.  I visualize each person who inhabits each home and each business.  There are twenty-four of us, and we all live together in our small town of 3,000 people.  Just suppose that each of the twenty-four people on my block reached out today in kindness to just one other person in our community.  Suppose that each person touched by the kindness of another becomes motivated to do the same.  Within seven days, every person in my town would have been touched by kindness and passed it on to another person.  Imagine how this sort of giving could alter the way we see each other.  Imagine the impact of making this a way of life.  At the end of seven days, if each of us passed on another act of kindness, we could infect the next small town in only one beat of our collective heart.  Children know these things; and the child who lives at the center of you is crying out and reminding you that you know them, too.  Who wants to be responsible for silencing the dream of the child who sees all things as possible?

In five days it will be Christmas Eve.  This is the season when we are called to seeing the need around us and doing what we can to meet it.  Let’s open our hearts to the wonder of the days that lead to the miracle of Love.  Hold a door for someone whose hands are full.  Give your seat to an elderly person and be thankful you have strong legs to stand on.  We all know the story of the arrival in Bethlehem of a young mother-to-be.  We all like to think that we might have been the one who would have relinquished a room at the inn for her comfort.  I close my eyes once again and try to see with the untarnished vision of the child who lives in my heart.  I look back to that journey to Bethlehem and wonder how many people along the way failed the young woman before the innkeeper turned her away.

Let’s not wait for five more days to pass.  Let’s begin now to recognize that each of us is on a journey to some destination.  Let’s spread kindness to those who share the road with us.  Let’s not be discouraged by thinking that we, alone, cannot change the world.  Let’s plant seeds of kindness in the places we travel and trust that they will continue to grow after we have moved on.  Let’s replace our logic with love and lead with our hearts.

As Madeleine L’Engle reminds us in her poem, “After Annunciation,”

“This is the irrational season

When love blooms bright and wild.

Had Mary been filled with reason

There’d have been no room for the child.”

Amid all the work and preparation this week, be sure to leave room for the child.