It is a lovely almost Winter Day in Little Egypt. The last day of fall is sunny and 45 degrees with a weather forecast of a high temperature of 8 degrees on Friday. Everywhere I look are happy people purchasing their last-minute Christmas gifts and thawing the turkey and anticipating the Christmas Eve Lunch and the Christmas Eve Church Service where we end by singing by candlelight Silent Night…and a tear or two always clouds my vision. We will travel to Salem to enjoy Christmas Dinner with Ron and Ira Kaye and Tara and Mike and Paige and Tyler…and leave warm and well-fed and full of Christmas Cheer!

The Old Gentleman holding his little dog with a blanket wrapped around it…perhaps did not feel so lucky. It is moderate in temperature today but it is still cold to be standing by the stoplight smiling and waving as the plethora of SUVs pass you by. He as well as someone at every intersection of the four-way stop was hoping for a small donation to assist them to buy food…perhaps to enjoy Christmas. The little dog was shivering.

Many of us have enjoyed good health during our salad days. We bought and we sold…we worked from dawn to dusk…we enjoyed Christmas Parties and social soirees…and now we are sick and alone. Time and chance happen to all of us. When you gaze at the Christmas revelry from your chair that due to your physical ailments you spend the majority of your time in…the perspective is different. Others of us feel alone when we are in the midst of the Holiday Throng…seemingly no one has included us…no one has said, This will be the best Christmas ever…God Bless us every one!’

Unseen we feel…and magnified much the more at this joyous time of year. Invisible we are to the strong and the ones who are surrounded with a mighty bulwark of loved ones to protect them…and to love them…and to see them. We unseen search for a smile…a kind word…a blanket for our shivering dog…a home that is warm…a bit of turkey and dressing and a woolen cap for our poor heads…and mittens for our frostbitten fingers.

We the Unseen can sing and love to lift our voices in Christmas Carols…as we hope that someone will join us in commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ…who loves us all and cares about the weakest and the loneliest among us…