What’s on your Grown-Up Christmas List this year? What’s a Christmas wish that you would make for the world? Why?

I can remember a conversation I had with my mother when I had called her to give her the great news that at age 40 I was happily pregnant with my first child. Her response was “How in the world are you going to care for a baby?”. My response was “As long as I love this baby with all my heart I know that I can’t go wrong.”

That’s what I wish for. That every child is loved. Loved how I love my child. Loved to the deep ends of the ocean, loved higher than the stars above, loved for all eternity, loved more than life itself, loved to the moon and back.

A few weeks ago when I was at one of the centers where I counsel children, I was a witness to what those involved called “an act of defiance by a child gone totally out of control”. They look to me for behavior management miracles. I look to God and ask why.

Why is it that one so young is full of such rage, frustration, and hopelessness? I see it every day. Children who have been denied their right to be loved, protected, and revered. Children whose parents deem them an inconvenience, a thorn in their side, a whipping post for their own anger and frustrations. Children who need to be hugged and held and rocked and whispered sweet nothings and told that they are the best thing to ever happen to this world of ours.

I believe in miracles.

I believe that Christmas wishes can come true.

I believe that one hug from me can make all the difference.

That’s what I wish for. That every child is loved. Loved how I love my child. Loved to the deep ends of the ocean, loved higher than the stars above, loved for all eternity, loved more than life itself, loved to the moon and back.

That’s what I wish for, how about you?