Isaiah 61:10--62:3, Psalm 147, Galatians 3:23-25; 4:4-7, John 1:1-18

Recently, I read somewhere (I can't remember where) a question that caused me to pause and reflect before answering. The writer said, "If someone asked you, who are you, what would you say?" Well, like so many of us, I am many things, depending on the context. I could say that I am a wife; I am a mother; I am a friend; I am a pray-er; I am a reader; I am a writer, and so on. I hope I would say, first and foremost, that I am a child of God, one who cries, "Abba! Father!"

I aspire to be one who incarnates God's love in the here and now, one who reflects the light of God into the dark places of the world, one who befriends the friendless, one who reaches out in compassion to the marginalized, one who is a beneficent presence wherever I am, in other words, all those things I know God wants me to be, yet where I fall far short. I am left with the need to ask you and all who know me to, in the words of the bumper sticker, "Please be patient with me. God is not finished with me yet."

From my reflection, I see I have quite a foundation for New Year's Spiritual Resolutions. Because the question was so fruitful for me, I leave it with you: who are you? God is not finished with any of us yet, thank Goodness. For sure, we can trust God, in the fulness of time, to transform us into the imago dei we were created to be, to love us home as the Father's precious child. In the meantime, how can we cooperate with the Holy One's work in our lives?