I hope you are having blessed Christmas season.

For the world the Christmas season ends on midnight Dec. 25. For us the Christmas season goes to Epiphany on Jan. 6. I get a giggle when I think there are two babies that we think of at this time of year, the baby Jesus and the New Year’s baby. Both speak of rebirth. Martin Luther, in his treatment of Baptism in his small catechism, says that each day, returning to its promise of God’s Grace in Jesus, upon confession and repentance (also translated in the Hazel Dictionary, “To do an about-face”) a new child is born to live for God and God’s people. So, with a new year, a new you.

I wish you had known my dad, John Sr. He was quite the repository of witty sayings and stories. My wife and I are blessed in a love for travel. Dad was a bit of a stay at home. Mom wasn’t. “Emma,” he’d say, “if there was such a thing as reincarnation, you’d come back as an airplane.” His take on traveling was, “People are people, places are places and things are things.” In May he’ll be gone 20 years.

People are people. Sometimes when I see people treating people, I think Charles Darwin had it backward. Perhaps one of the negative things about social media is that we can react without thinking. Well Jesus taught about “turning the other cheek.” When I do so, I am forced to look again at the situation before reacting. Nothing wimpy about that teaching, just caring kindness.

The word “respect“ literally means to look again. Let’s resolve this year to look at others with respect. Simply quietly responding, “Come again?” can help defuse an awkward situation.

Places are places. I was heartbroken in seminary to find that an internship planned in the Philadelphia area, through no fault of my own, had fallen through. If you ever want to hear God laugh, just come up with a foolproof plan.

I ended up going to Toledo, Ohio, to do mine. All I knew of Toledo was Max Klinger from “M.A.S.H.” Yet, under the tutelage of a fine pastor and loving congregation, I would have a rewarding experience and find a host of new sites to visit on my off time, which on internship is not very plentiful.

Things are things. Milton Berle once said, “Love people, use things.”

Too often we confuse the two. I’ve known of families torn apart by who was going to inherit Aunt Tillie’s umbrella. Countless heart attacks and strokes have been caused by needing the next great gadget, or style of clothes.

Maybe it only comes with getting older, but when you reach the point that giving brings you more joy than getting, or at least as much, I think you earned the right to call yourself a human being.

I’ll never forget my dad’s generosity. To look at him you would think the crusty old railroader made Archie Bunker look like Mother Teresa. But he had a heart for folk. He’d hear in church that so and so’s house burned down and the next day he’d be in the office with a check.

I’d like to think that spirit lived on, in that when I finally sold his house (ho boy) the first thing I did was write a check to our Lutheran World Hunger Appeal. The funds would provide not only direct aid, but technology, advocacy and resources to help make our world, at home and abroad, better in Jesus’ name.

How will the “new year, new you” impact the world? Will you use wisely the resources God has given us, love people and venture to new places of mission? What new chapter in God’s book will you write this year?