It should have been me saying those words. After all, it was a friend who had stuck her arm through my car window to help me get off my coat. [One of the "twisty" things I am still unable to do post-surgery).
She was thanking me for letting her help me. Sigh. That has stuck in my head this entire holiday season. No one wants to need help from others. When we do, we hope we accept it gracefully.
It is certainly no accident that I've spent the last 6 weeks learning how to receive gracefully - especially these last three weeks during Advent, when we are to be preparing and making room for the ultimate gift in the form of a baby. A free gift to us, if we are just willing to receive it.
How many of us will be stubborn and think we don't need it? How many of us continue to function as if we can do it all ourselves?
I read this last night - and it reinforced the lessons of the past few weeks...
"You can not receive a gift unless you have a place for it in your life. You cannot learn anything if you think you know it all. You cannot receive love unless you know there is a place in you that is empty and needs love to fill it." (John Buchanan, Christian Century)Who can't use a little more love in their world???
So, my Christmas wish for us all of us that we make room for the gift of love, that is given to us freely if we just accept it.
May you all have a blessed Christmas season and joyous New Year!
