Christmas is a time to celebrate old traditions but at the same time, we often don't realize that over time we begin to celebrate our traditional heritage in new ways. Today, I would like to challenge you to give yourself the gift of seeing old things in a new way. Including—seeing yourself. 

After weight loss surgery, I discovered the new me. But really I just uncovered the old me. I found the freedom to unlock who I really am. Although they were there along, I found new things about myself that I had buried for a long time. My weight had covered a lot more of the "real" me than I had realized. I had lost the confidence I needed to be "me."

To me it's the little things in life that get my attention. I would say most people overlook simple things in life in search for the "big" things. To me, it's the fascination of the undiscovered. It's the hidden caterpillar or a tiny seed that holds the greatest wonder. At the beach, while most shell seekers are on a hunt for the biggest shells, you'll find me sitting among a pile of shell "crumbs" in search of tiny treasures. It's who I am.

If you have been reading my blog for awhile, you know that I love to study words. It doesn't have to be a new word or a big word that I haven't heard before. It is usually a familiar word that gets my notice. So familiar, in fact, that I don't realize it's deeper or fuller meaning until I actually define it. I find a whole new sense of wonder. Reading the definition of the word suddenly takes on a new perspective and a deeper clarity. 

 In a post I wrote several years ago, I said:

"Words cause us to think, feel, imagine, communicate, change, and heal. Words carry meaning…they matter. They hold the power to inspire. They strengthen and empower. They impute wisdom, provide understanding, reveal truth, give direction and create awareness.

Words are actually vibrations that cause movement, and when that movement is realized on our hearing ear...we are suddenly awakened into a different reality. The right word in the right place at the right time can change us and our world."  

I exercise my passion for words by researching words in the stories in the Bible. It's who I am. It's important to me to understand the Bible in the way it was written hundreds of years ago. But because the Bible was written in a different language and in a different culture, and because some words haven't been properly translated, we find that we don't understand the real meaning behind what the Bible was intended to communicate. 

For example, recently, I have been rereading the Christmas story in the Book of Luke. I'm sure you are familiar with it. You may have read it or heard it for years, but often our familiarity keeps us from seeing exactly what the text says.

Re-reading the story to find the original or intended meaning usually leads to discovering something new—something that has been there all along, but I missed it because I didn't look for something new or see what was already there. We often look at something familiar with a pre-conceived mindset. When I study, I break the passage down and look up every word to find it's original meaning.

Many times we don't understand it because we don't understand the culture in which it was written. We try to apply it to our current understanding. Not only do cultures change over time, but each culture is different according to the times in which they live. I'm sure you would agree that our great grandmothers culture looks a little different that the culture that our grandchildren are growing up in. Actually, I'm being facetious, it's dramatically different. I was born in the 1950's. My children have a hard time conceiving of a world without computers, cell phones, color tv, and microwaves.

When I research the culture of the time period in which biblical events were written I can better understand what it meant to the people it was written to in the first place. I also put it back into the Bible as a "whole" not separated from all the rest of the message. And just like I suspected, this year I found a whole new and exciting truth in the story because I found an original word that was not properly translated.

Speaking of returning to the "old", this past year I also spent time finishing some sewing projects that I had put aside. I learned how to sew when I was five years old. I think I inherited my love and talent for sewing from my grandmother. I'm sure the things she made were handed down from her mother and grandmother for generations. Even though I'm still carrying that passion, creativity and knowledge that was passed on to me, I've learned to do them in a new way and with a personal reflection, so my projects don't look the same as my grandmother's projects.

Finding out who we are is not just a happening but a journey. I'm still discovering things about myself. Maybe it's a desire or a talent that, over the years, I've laid aside. Maybe I didn't see the value or importance in them but I've learning to appreciate that these seemingly insignificant things are actually the most signficant—these unique differences define me and have formed me into who I was created to be. 

There is something inherent in all of us—something that we carry from the past, but the way we express it is uniquely ours. During this season, I encourage you to rediscover the passion in the innate part of who you are. If your outside has changed, it's highly possible that some part of who you are on the inside needs a change to.

We become so familiar with the old, we overlook the new. You have been taken out of an "old" environment, and a former way of living, but with new life comes the need for new eyes to see ourselves as we really are. We have been formed by our experiences and our past, often, we too have been misunderstood, or "mistranslated" and mislabeled but when we move forward, we need to become new—to be converted, "translated" or redefined—we need to bring the important things with us and leave the unimportant, mislabeled "us" behind.

I pray that you begin to see yourself as you have always been and at the same time that you find something new within—the "you" you were meant to be. Allow yourself to embrace, express, and treasure who you are—in all your uniqueness in a fuller way.

I know you will find new meaning, a new perspective, new hope, and a purpose. It's been there all along a treasure hidden just beneath the surface—growning for such a time as this.

Merry Christmas