WONDER

So, I just returned from Colombia. My time away and the realities of catch-up mode since my return have meant little action on this particular page lately.

I simply want to reflect briefly on one of the many lessons I learned during my time away: Jesus transforms lives!

For those of you, like me, who grew up without tyring too much of the wild life it can be easy to forget how desparetly we need to be changed from the inside out. Hence, we can underestimate the radical life-quake that comes when a person says with conviction, "Jesus is Lord!"

For those of you who have forgotten this transforming reality, and for those of you who think it's just a bunch of bunk, I can only say that I saw, touched, and heard first hand the truth of what I speak. In Colombia I met people whose lives have been so rescued from the gutter of life, from the trash heap of society, and from the grips of evil that I could only weep. It's not just that they became nicer, or willed themselves into new clothes, no, they were completely and utterly morphed into new people - that's what they said! It's almost like they were born again! Hmmm...

So, the simple truth for you and me this Christmas: That baby transforms people when he is born in us!

I bring my offering yet again...and wonder and hope and smile.