Christmas Eve at Spring Creek, a wonderful evening. Preston Clegg raised a thoughtful question for us all asking with John the Baptist, “Are you the one, or should we look for another?” Arnold Rawls sang “O, Holy Night,” and as he sang the young lady in front of us wiped a tear from her cheek and said to her mother-in-law, “That is so beautiful!” Her response helped shape my answer. This One born is the goodness we seek.

Perhpas you’ve read Steven Galloway’s “The Cellist in Sarajevo” and remember the impact upon Arrow’s life of the cellist’s playing in the exact place that had known such chaos and despair. He writes, “The music demanded that Arrow remember this, that she know to a certainty that the world still held the capacity for goodness. The notes were proof of that.”

As the year closes I think of those who ask good questions, those who make good music, those who live well and offer light and warmth for the journey, giving evidence that the world still holds the capacity for goodness.