A few months ago my pastor asked me how many people read my blog. The honest answer was that I didn’t know. I can see how many people are subscribed. I can see how many “hits” my blog gets, but I rarely look. Besides, the question of how many people actually read it can’t really be answered. The posts go out through email, through feed readers, onto Facebook and Twitter. They get forwarded and passed around.

What I do know is that it’s relatively few people in the grand scheme of the blogosphere. I know a small circle of family and friends read regularly. I hear from some of them that they know this person or that person who reads my posts regularly. Apart from the few who comment now and then, I simply don’t know how many people will read this post. 

Besides, I think the question my pastor was really trying to ask was “Why do you do this?” The answer is no less difficult to answer. The truth is that there are multiple reasons. It’s an easy way to keep loved ones up to date on our lives. It’s a way to express things that are on my heart and mind. Knowing that a few people out there will wonder why I haven’t posted my chapter-a-day provides a little accountability. I like to write. I like the creative outlet.

Anyway, whoever might be reading this wherever you happen to be, I want to take a moment to say thanks for tagging along and for taking the time to read a post now and then. This morning, I’m thinking about you and praying that God’s peace might surround your heart and mind in the midst of holiday craziness and family dysfunction. I hope that somehow we can all have at least one moment in our day today in which we catch a glimpse of the “peace on Earth, goodwill towards men” that came wrapped in swaddling clothes, laying in a manger.

Merry Christmas.