Do you still write one? I remember writing to Santa as a kid. While I was aware that there were financial limits with my parents, requests to Santa were limitless. As I wrote my list, I would refer to the dog-eared Sears catalogue. I vaguely remember the trifold letter paper that I would use for my letters: heavy card stock, lightly stenciled with wide lined guide lines for my newly learned printing. I remember my mom showing me where to put the date, heading, salutation, body of the letter and signature. I would fold up the letter and seal with a gold foil sticker and then head off to the official North Pole mailbox conveniently found at the local fire station.

Even though my parents are gone and my belief in Santa has also disappeared, the items on my grown- up Christmas list seem just as impossible to receive as the loaded list of yore. My list is nothing tangible, for the longer I live, the more I recognize that things are just that- things: commodities that come and go. It may seem cheesy but all I really want for Christmas is peace on earth or at least in my little corner of the world: peace and understanding among neighbors; peace and purpose for family; peace and healing for loved ones. Ultimately reconciliation and peace for the world.

It has occurred to me that I can check off items on that Christmas list. Now. After all, the point of Christmas is that the One who was to come and restore the world back to the way God designed, has come. Heaven has come down to earth and we can begin the restoration of peace. As the old choral song says (always the closer for the annual school Christmas concert), peace does begin with me.

I can begin with peace in my heart. Peace that passes all understanding: the peace of forgiveness (for myself and others), the peace in giving up control of uncontrollable situations, the peace in turning my worries into prayers.

What about you? Has this year put the kibosh on any dreams or wishes? Does this year feel more like hell on earth than heaven? What can you do to bring about peace? In your life? In the lives of your family and friends? In your neighborhood or community?

So here's my lifelong wish

My grown-up Christmas list

Not for myself

But for a world in need

No more lives torn apart

That wars would never start

And time would heal all hearts

And everyone would have a friend

And right would always win

And love would never end

This is my grown-up Christmas list

Songwriters: David Foster / Linda Thompson