Skip to main content

Post Christmas

After Christmas

Yesterday, I read from Matthew second chapter to my children before they went to sleep. When I finished, my daughter said, "I think God saved the entire family when He sent Jesus away to Egypt."
It gave me the jitters to think of the next question they would ask me, " if God saved Jesus from Herod, why didn't he save all the children?"

The first Christmas was a promise of hope, joy, peace and love. But horror lurked just around the corner. Who knew? God did. He even foretold this misery. The Messiah was to be born into this chaos and grief. Not afterwards nor before that.

Grief turns severe during Christmas. New year leaves not much to hope for at homes that have lost loved ones. But Christmas comes nevertheless. Just like kept promises, Christmas comes and with it comes the challenge to love beyond the grief.

 I don't know the answer to why children die - be it in mass shootings or bizzare accidents. But what I do know is this. This baby was saved because, He had to die a more painful and torturous death hated by the powerful, condemned by His own people, betrayed by His friend, stripped naked and bruised beyond recognition. That was the purpose of His birth and most certainly of His narrow escape from Herod's sword.




Comments

Josephine said…
Gives a whole new insight!
December 28, 2018 at 12:16 AM
Sheeba said…
"The challenge to love beyond the grief" is a new touch
December 28, 2018 at 10:39 PM
Sheeba said…
"The challenge to love beyond the grief" is a new touch
December 28, 2018 at 10:40 PM
Angela said…
Hoping to move beyond my own struggles to make a difference...
January 2, 2019 at 8:52 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Jesus Raises Lazarus from the Dead

It is amazing how the truth of God's word can lift one's spirit in a moment. Only this morning I found myself struggling to get rid of a few thoughts. I took out my mobile bible and read it aloud (not quite) in a bus. As I finished, I asked in a typical sound of music fashion " why am I not feeling better?"  Getting oneself busy into the daily humdrum of life creates an illusion of not being right under the very nose of God and so I began to go about 'my' business with a vengeance that resulted in a headache after an hour of mindless games on the iPad. Left with nothing to do, I went back to what I had been reading through out the week - Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead. After several unsuccessful attempts at getting the big picture, I was about to resolve myself to this one truth: this was the ultimate sign for the Jews and the disciples as Jesus' hour drew near. It would turn the hearts of those on the fence and incriminate those plotting against...
Post a Comment
Read more

Asterika

Asterika hated the contraption. She tried her best to wriggle out of the wheels the humans made for her. It felt heavy and cumbersome and retricted her movement. Squirrels were made to be on their feet always. Why  does this meddlesome human think she knows best?  It was fine when Priscy picked her up from the ground. Otherwise the boys would've certainly done some damage. It still wasn't very clear to Asterika if she fell down or if someone pushed her off the nest. Anyway after the fall, she couldn't move for sometime and the school boys armed with stones menacingly drew near.  Before a stone was cast, there was this sweet voice, clear as bell that meant something like the 'Princy pal's office' and what a pal that must be for this tiny human wasn't even as big as those school boys yet at the mention of her pal, they fled the scene.  Mulling over the happenings of that eventful evening, Asterika wanted to feel grateful, yet found it hard to be living indoors...
Post a Comment
Read more

Grin

 In the lake at Capernaum lived Grin, a fish with an unusually big mouth. It seemed as though someone had placed an invisible magnifying glass there and had forgotten about it.  When Grin was a small fry, he tried his best to be liked. Only his ways of 'helping' were not received well by the general public in the school. He was quite confident and thought himself smart until his successive attempts at helping others failed miserably.  Once he was caught helping his cousin identify edible worms in the water. Thankfully, just as Ken was about to close his mouth over the juicy worm aunt Saille furiously pushed him away from the hook, giving Grin an ear-full. That was the end of his life as the 'smart-assistant of the shoal' and the start of his 'lonely and loathsome' phase of life, trailing behind travelling alone in the shoal. Usually, his thoughts circled around, "why am I even a fish? Life would've been easier as a turtle." Of course, through all t...
1 comment
Read more