Take the Christ out of Christmas and it's just mas...
by Roberto Esponja on Saturday, December 24, 2011 at 10:36am ·
Christmas...it's
a joyous magical time for some, but for many many others, it's a
somber, annual reminder of the sufferings they have come to associate
with it. I too have my deep pains associated with this day, I would be a
liar to say otherwise.
This day, Christmas Eve, once more sufferings and losses weigh heavily upon the hearts of many folks I care about. In considering their pain, and my helplessness to ease their sufferings, I seem only able to recall what is often referred to as the shortest verse in the Bible...Jesus wept. He did so at a house that was in mourning.
But Jesus wept, not for the one who had passed from this life to the next, but for those persons who continued on in this life and felt in their very core the sudden absence of the one they loved dearly. Jesus understood their pain and he had compassion.
In considering all of this, I seem to have stumbled upon a far deeper unserstanding of the original point behind all this beautiful holiday mayhem. For a life, marked by sufferings beyond our wildest imaginations, is what the celebration of Christmas signifies the beginning of.
It is the beginning of "Immanuel", or God with us, coming as a baby to die as a man, suffering with us to understand us, to let us know we are not alone in our pain. Suffering for us, offering hope of a life free from suffering by the restoring of the relationship between the creation and creator, offering himself as the sacrafice for our rebellions against God.
Suffering...It's something we rarely see the blessing of until, through perseverance, it becomes some distant memory. There is a bond however, born between people, in the sharing of mutual affliction whose strength and depth cannot be matched or even known, by those whose relationships have only known mutual prosperity.
This is the bond and the hope, that for almost 30 years now, has kept me going, in times when by my own strength I would not have done so. However, it also a hope that even in my most desperate desire to impart, I cannot force upon even the most hopeless.
For it is a hope that comes to us by faith, and one that we must choose to accept fully if we would have it at all. We can offer nothing to God he could not take as his own, with the exception of our hearts, and that is his one desire. It's the point of it all.
I hope this holiday season, whatever it means to you, is a joyous one.
Take Christ out of Christmas, and it's just mas, or in Spanish, more...¿más de lo mismo? ¿Por qué?
This day, Christmas Eve, once more sufferings and losses weigh heavily upon the hearts of many folks I care about. In considering their pain, and my helplessness to ease their sufferings, I seem only able to recall what is often referred to as the shortest verse in the Bible...Jesus wept. He did so at a house that was in mourning.
But Jesus wept, not for the one who had passed from this life to the next, but for those persons who continued on in this life and felt in their very core the sudden absence of the one they loved dearly. Jesus understood their pain and he had compassion.
In considering all of this, I seem to have stumbled upon a far deeper unserstanding of the original point behind all this beautiful holiday mayhem. For a life, marked by sufferings beyond our wildest imaginations, is what the celebration of Christmas signifies the beginning of.
It is the beginning of "Immanuel", or God with us, coming as a baby to die as a man, suffering with us to understand us, to let us know we are not alone in our pain. Suffering for us, offering hope of a life free from suffering by the restoring of the relationship between the creation and creator, offering himself as the sacrafice for our rebellions against God.
Suffering...It's something we rarely see the blessing of until, through perseverance, it becomes some distant memory. There is a bond however, born between people, in the sharing of mutual affliction whose strength and depth cannot be matched or even known, by those whose relationships have only known mutual prosperity.
This is the bond and the hope, that for almost 30 years now, has kept me going, in times when by my own strength I would not have done so. However, it also a hope that even in my most desperate desire to impart, I cannot force upon even the most hopeless.
For it is a hope that comes to us by faith, and one that we must choose to accept fully if we would have it at all. We can offer nothing to God he could not take as his own, with the exception of our hearts, and that is his one desire. It's the point of it all.
I hope this holiday season, whatever it means to you, is a joyous one.
Take Christ out of Christmas, and it's just mas, or in Spanish, more...¿más de lo mismo? ¿Por qué?
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