| A Christmas letter to my daughter Dear Mei-Lian,  I have no idea where life will take you. I have dreams for you. I watch you and try to imagine what the future holds for you. When I introduced you in a worship service to the people at Centenary UMC, I noticed that you held up both your hands like you were pronouncing a benediction. I remember watching you tell me about preschool one day and you were jumping up and down with your right hand up in the air like a Pentecostal preacher. Of course, I jump to all kinds of conclusions about what these things might mean for your future. Every mother has dreams for her child. Jesus mother Mary dreamed about where life would take him. After the angel Gabriel visited Mary and told her she would bear a child, she sang an old, old song the one that was sung by her foremother, Hannah, when she waited for a baby. When the social worker handed me that piece of paper with your little passport size picture stapled to it and said this is your daughter, I heard Marys song. All that I am grows and expands, and rejoices with God who will save me. Small as I am, I grow and expand, to the future and God who has blessed me. Gods love offers life, Gods strength is the love that brings justice and peace to all nations. Gods love offers life, to the poor and the meek who are raised from the ground where they suffer. All that I am grows and expands, with God who brings life and hope and justice. (paraphrase of Luke 1:46-53) I dream for you the same dream that Mary had for her son Jesus. I dream that you will grow and expand into your future with God who offers you life, joy and love. I dream that one day you too will hear that old, old song, sung by our foremothers. I also dream that when you are older, you will look forward to Advent and Christmas as a time when God gives birth to grace, hope, joy, new possibilities and salvation for everyone. I dream that you will experience at Christmas the joy and goodness that comes not from expensive gifts and consumer products, but from the Prince of Peace. My dream for you Mei-Lian is that each year as you prepare your heart to welcome Jesus once again on his birthday, you will spend very little energy and not much money on Christmas gifts. What you will do is focus on the loves of your life your family and friends and the quality of time you have to celebrate together. You will not get upset about O Holy Night playing on the mall public address system because you wont be at the mall. I dream that you will live within and tell the story of that miraculous love that was given to us all by God on that first Christmas day to your children and grandchildren, so that they too will hear and one day sing Marys old, old song. Mei-Lian is the 3-year-old adopted daughter of The Rev. Stephanie Vader, pastor of Emmanuel UMC in Scaggsville. | 
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