ImFavy

A favorite Gong Christmas tradition is to read Charles Dickens’s “A Christmas Carol” aloud as a family. I’ve often wondered why, when we refer to Scrooge, do we think primarily of a grumpy old miser, someone who scoffs at Christmas as a big “humbug”? Why don’t we acknowledge more the new Scrooge? The new Scrooge who generously sends the prize turkey as a Christmas surprise? The new Scrooge who reconciles with his cheerful nephew Freddie? The new Scrooge who raises Bob Cratchit’s salary and cares for Tiny Tim? Are there those around us, perhaps we ourselves, who could be a different person if only we would stop typecasting or stereotyping them as their old self? No person and no family is perfect. We each have foibles and faults—things we wish to do better. This Christmas, perhaps we can receive—and offer—Jesus Christ’s precious gifts of change and repentance, of forgiving and forgetting, for each other and ourselves. Let us make peace with the past year. Let go of the emotional angst and noise, the frictions and annoyances, that clutter our lives. May we grant each other our new possibilities instead of fixating on our past limitations. Let’s give the new Scrooge in each of us a chance to change.