It's The Day picked to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, who was born in pain and blood just as the Angel of The Lord had told Adam and Eve that all their line would be; God made no exception for His Son. And being born of a woman, into the world, Jesus faced all of the troubles and trials of this world. He was born in a stable amid dirty, tired animals and their waste, and his crib was a hay manger normally employed to feed animals, with a blanket (likely given up by his parents). He was not born to the line of Herod, or to the line of the Levites, nor to any powerful or wealthy persons, but to a tradesman.
As an adult man, filled with the Power of The Lord, he worked miracles---for others. Though he suffered hunger and want, humiliation and disdain, he endured them. When men sent to take him prisoner fought with his disciples, he did not curse them, but healed those who were wounded. He fed those who were hungry, transformed ritual into celebration, protected those who were different from the tyranny of the many, and drove those whose hearts were filled with Greed from the Temple and his presence. Through all this, he did not use his Power for himself.
When he went to his terrible death, alone and tormented, he did not use his power to save himself.
Even if he had no Divine Power---if he were just a Jew driven to reform a faith gone into decay and decline, or merely a Prophet and not the Son of God---the life of Jesus as it is recorded in the Christian Gospels is a message so clear that one marvels at what so many of its adherents declaim as Christian.
When my daughters were younger, and asked about Sin and forgiveness and Hell, rather than explain that I believe that the God of the Hebrews has good reason to be a jealous God, I tried to explain what I felt Christ had been teaching by word and deed:
At the end, when one must stand before God and answer for what one has done (or not done) in life, God reads out all those things, good and bad, and all our defences are stripped away---we cannot hide from ourselves anymore, nor explain them away. And when it has all be said, and when we have seen it all, and we feel how short of what we might have been we have fallen, Jesus stands beside us and speaks on our behalf.
And he tells God that he knows these sins, these failings and weaknesses and even these wicked deeds and thoughts, for he has been a Man in the World, and even he, who knew God as his own father, was afraid when the soldiers came for him. And he says that he will take up the burden of our Sin on our behalf, the way a friend or a sister or a mother would.
The we feel that moment where we know that someone has stepped up for us; like when someone has our back, not because we deserve it, but because they love us, and that's what they know we would do, and we are humbled by that, just as were are now. And just as we feel bad when some one we love takes the blame for us, so we feel bad then, in heaven, and then we feel all those bad things lifted away, and all the things we wish we hadn't done, and all the things we wish we had done, are all taken up by Jesus on our behalf, because he can carry them, and that's what he promised he would do, if we believed.
Now I don't believe the God of the Hebrews is the Only God, nor that He is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent. In fact, my beliefs do not encapsulate particularly well. But today, for Fishii, I told my only bible story.
Merry Christmas Fishii.
As an adult man, filled with the Power of The Lord, he worked miracles---for others. Though he suffered hunger and want, humiliation and disdain, he endured them. When men sent to take him prisoner fought with his disciples, he did not curse them, but healed those who were wounded. He fed those who were hungry, transformed ritual into celebration, protected those who were different from the tyranny of the many, and drove those whose hearts were filled with Greed from the Temple and his presence. Through all this, he did not use his Power for himself.
When he went to his terrible death, alone and tormented, he did not use his power to save himself.
Even if he had no Divine Power---if he were just a Jew driven to reform a faith gone into decay and decline, or merely a Prophet and not the Son of God---the life of Jesus as it is recorded in the Christian Gospels is a message so clear that one marvels at what so many of its adherents declaim as Christian.
When my daughters were younger, and asked about Sin and forgiveness and Hell, rather than explain that I believe that the God of the Hebrews has good reason to be a jealous God, I tried to explain what I felt Christ had been teaching by word and deed:
At the end, when one must stand before God and answer for what one has done (or not done) in life, God reads out all those things, good and bad, and all our defences are stripped away---we cannot hide from ourselves anymore, nor explain them away. And when it has all be said, and when we have seen it all, and we feel how short of what we might have been we have fallen, Jesus stands beside us and speaks on our behalf.
And he tells God that he knows these sins, these failings and weaknesses and even these wicked deeds and thoughts, for he has been a Man in the World, and even he, who knew God as his own father, was afraid when the soldiers came for him. And he says that he will take up the burden of our Sin on our behalf, the way a friend or a sister or a mother would.
The we feel that moment where we know that someone has stepped up for us; like when someone has our back, not because we deserve it, but because they love us, and that's what they know we would do, and we are humbled by that, just as were are now. And just as we feel bad when some one we love takes the blame for us, so we feel bad then, in heaven, and then we feel all those bad things lifted away, and all the things we wish we hadn't done, and all the things we wish we had done, are all taken up by Jesus on our behalf, because he can carry them, and that's what he promised he would do, if we believed.
Now I don't believe the God of the Hebrews is the Only God, nor that He is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent. In fact, my beliefs do not encapsulate particularly well. But today, for Fishii, I told my only bible story.
Merry Christmas Fishii.
I am not actually religious..but am spiritual. I am more of an Omnist than anything. This truly touched me that you would take the time so write this, just for me.
And apparently the older I get, I am not that into Christmas either. I am LOVING the food, and making my mom cry happy tears, and watching children hyperventilate while opening gifts. But everything else? Not so much!
Merry Christmas!