The other day I blogged about my favorite gifts as a little girl and tonight I want to blog about my favorite gift as an adult.

I’ve got Christmas carols playing on the stereo (do people still use that word?). I’ve got really pretty colored lights on my back fence that I see every night when I’m in my office. Just about everyone I’ve encountered In the last week has been very friendly. As we wind down the shopping, baking and wrapping, that very old familiar feeling that my soul has felt for hundreds of years appears once again. That anticipation of something coming.

When I was a little girl, I thought it was Santa Claus. But as an adult, I’ve come to recognize what it is. It’s the celebration of birth of the coolest man I’ve ever heard of. Rabbi Jeshua Ben Joseph– (pronounced Yeshua Ben Yoseph). Teacher Jesus, son of Joseph.

Many people think of Jesus as the guy that came to die for their sins………………..but to me he is so much more than that. Frankly, I don’t buy that whole conept of him dying for my sins. I’m responsible for my sins, not him. That’s what the Golden Rule is all about.

I’ve always known since I was a lttle girl that he came to be a role model for us. He came to teach us so many things but the main message that stands out to me tonight is that God is a loving God and we can go directly to Him/Her.. We don’t need a “go between” to do our praying for us.

He also taught us that He is NOT the only child of God. We are all children of God and we have the same unlimited potential as Jesus did. That unlimited potential is the Christ part of all of us.

His last name is not Christ. His title is Jesus the Christ. He discovered the Christ part of himself as he was growing up. He came to understand that as a child of God, he had the same potential that God has and that what we’re all striving for is to know that oneness and live in that oneness.

There is so much he taught us. He brought us freedom in so many ways.
I could go on and on about the things I’ve learned from him through prayer and meditation but I’m not going to.

Tonight, I’m just going to stay focused on that sweet feeling of anticipation that his birth will once again remind me to dig deeper and be more committed to living from that Christ part of myself.

As much as I bitch about the hassle of Christmas, when it’s all said and done, I’m grateful for it’s gentle reminder of what we’re really celebrating. His courageous life and teachings. His commitment to his path and to God. His example to all of us as to what it means to live from the Christ part of ourselves. That’s the best present of all.

Merry Christmas, December, 2009.
Echo