On December 9th, over seventy years ago, I entered this world. Waiting for me at home were my father and two older sisters, just a year apart in age from each other, but already teenagers by the time of my own birth.
It had been an emotional year for my mother, who lost both her mother and father—my maternal grandparents—during the time she was pregnant with me. And this is where coming home to much older siblings would, years later, be a source of comfort to me.
They would be able to tell me stories of my grandparents, who lived just two blocks away and with whom they would have many visits during their formative years. But they would also, when I was old enough to understand, share with me the significance of my presence after the loss of two family patriarchs.
“There you were,” my sisters told me. “New life to hold, to nurture, and to love, right at Christmas and the beginning of a new year." As Christians celebrate the season of Advent, it is a reminder to all of us that the promise and appearance of new life and new beginnings can bring hope and joy to families, and to the entire world.
I'm Jim Kline, and that is my Perspective.
