The time has come to make our holiday wish lists. Even if you're the person who has everything, your mom and your kids and your spouse want to know what to get you. You can always come up with something: a book or piece of clothing or knickknack you've had your eye on. But if you got past all the things you could buy for yourself, if you wrote on that list what you most want in the world, what would it be? I'm willing to bet it doesn't fit under a tree, and not because it's a Miata, either.

Christmas is the time of packaging: bows around wrapping paper around boxes around tissue paper around . . . whatever it is at the center that is what we really want. Next time someone asks you what you want for the holidays, you can take it as a mantra, an occasion to deepen and really listen inside yourself for the answer to the question. There are desires within you that have nothing to do with the newest book by your favorite author.

Sometimes we package our desires so tidily that they are barely recognizable. Look at what advertisements tell us about our deepest needs. Do you want love? Then buy Certs. In the same way, adventure gets packaged as a sport-utility vehicle; passion gets packaged as a vacation in the Bahamas; concern for our families gets packaged as laundry detergent.

Jesus, too, is packaged, so that Christmas becomes the economic center of the year, rather than the spiritual one, as it could be. Under the stocking-stuffers and decorations and office parties, the world-shaking message of Christmas gets obscured. But whether we are Christian or not, that message still has power and deserves to be heard: the divine is incarnated here in this life, on this earth, in the humblest of places. Seek among the hay bales in a stable for the source of the light; look into a cow's feeding trough to see your god. Christmas celebrates the realization that, as Handel says in his Messiah, "The kingdom of this world is become the kingdom of our Lord," the realm of all that is holy. Let's bring that Christmas gift out from under the tinsel trappings; we need it.

Christmas is an invitation to each of us to let ourselves imagine the greatest gift we could receive. What's in that box for you? What do you want to find when you peel away all the trappings and wrappings? I recently heard of an eighth grader who wrote, "If I could have three wishes, world peace would be all three." What would your three wishes bring?

When you discover the answer, let the world know. Write it on your Christmas list for all to see. And then, who knows what wondrous thing you will discover on Christmas morning?

Peace and joy to you all,

Amy