I love Christmas. Always have. My Grandpa, when he was alive, joked every single year that it was "time to put up the Christmas tree" as soon as June rolled around. Admittedly, I have lost some of my childhood love for the holiday, only because now I feel it approaches too fast, leaves me exhausted, and doesn't seem to fit into my schedule anymore. It was quite an achievement that we brought our tree in the weekend after Thanksgiving this year.
What is Christmas anyway? Or rather, what should it be? Not shopping. Not cookies. Not time spent arguing over the necessity of saying "Merry Christmas" vs. "Happy Holidays" or, gasp, writing X-mas instead of the whole word out. Do we really have this much time on our hands?
I was emailing with someone at Acres of Love today, who told me a story of something that happened last month:
"Early in November, we received in our care, a beautiful little girl. She was born prematurely on 18 October, 2009. She is TINY! Her head and body are the size of a woman’s hand. At birth she weighed 1.9 kg (4.2 lbs.) This little princess, only 4 days old and although so small and innocent, has to take AZT medication as she has been exposed to the HIV virus. She has sores on her mouth too which are being treated. Strangely she was born with an extra little finger on each hand but these are in the process of being removed."
And that's just one of many, many situations that happen on a daily basis at Acres of Love. I'm constantly grateful for the people involved whenever I hear one of these stories. They not only provide a basic, breathing, physical opportunity for life for all of these sick and orphaned children, but they aim to give a quality life to each one. A rich life, a full life, a life with hope and possibility. How much is hope worth to you? How much is it worth to them?
Perspective. It hit me like a freight train.
Just... something to think about.
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