'Tis the season to be

Dead tired last night and eager to hit the sack, I was idly doing a recap of the highlights of the past week:

Helping out with arrangements for a High School reunion,  signing off on a major business project, singing for the 1st day of dawn mass, throwing a kiddie party for nearly 200 marginalized kids, being with decades-long friends & colleagues at an annual tradition, singing for the sick & the elderly, dinners with family, friends & family friends, and altogether meeting new people along the way...

Varied as they were, I realized that they all had one thing in common: they all presented opportunities to be of service to others. 

Service [sur-vis] - noun, an act of helpful activity; help; aid

And by 'help', it comes without personal consideration or particular benefit.

Sometimes we forget that in all aspects of our daily grind, we have the opportunity to be of service to others, at work, at home, in the community, while on leisure and everywhere else.  Even when we are supposed to be the one officially being served.  A 'please' or a 'thank you', a chair pulled for someone or a seat given to someone, in relieving somebody of a task, in doing more than what is expected or required, in not waiting to be asked, in neither demanding nor expecting fairness or what is due us all the time.  In being a Christian.

Thank God for this wonderful season called Christmas, which, more than any other time of the year, gives us these opportunities left and right. Let us not miss out! Gift-giving is wonderful. But giving service in its bare essence is giving others a gift of YOURSELF.

Even at birth, the birthday Boy knew that He'll give His entire life for us. What's giving a tiny bit of ours as our birthday gift to Him? 'Tis the season to be the present He truly deserves.