What I learned this Christmas...

Merry Christmas everyone! May you find peace and happiness during this season!



















During this Christmas season I had some "ooooooh" moments.
I think working in the pregnancy center caused the first one.
I'm really happy and excited about Christmas, especially since I have been more interested in religion. I love this celebration of the birth of Jesus, the readings of Isaiah and St John. I like when the priests bring to our attention how humbly Jesus was born to become one of us.
This year I remembered this part especially. I was thinking how easy it is to put God way back in Heaven, far far away, inaccessible, all mighty, all glory and such.
The birth of Jesus reminded me how God loved the world so much, how his guts were torn (the meaning of misericordia- commiseration) with our misery. So he became human. One of us.
The message of Christmas is " God cares."
Tuesday night we had a staff Christmas party, and someone said she believed in a "superior power". I like when people share their beliefs. :) But I always feel a little sad when I hear that kind of " There is a strength beyond everything, there is a deity, but it's so much bigger it doesn't care for our little planet.."
Well I feel sad because it's missing the message of Christmas, the good news is that God cares. He cares so much not only for our little planet, but for each and everyone of us. Even the smallest one. Even the most lowly and rejected.
Beyond that what I realized this year is that God had to start as a baby. To be really human, one of us, he had to start from the very begining, from conception. From inside the womb. He could have come as a grown up, like an apparition. But that would have been cheating.
Even before the Cross and Resurrection, it tells me how much God cares.
And that makes all the difference.

The second "oooooooh " moment I had was yesterday, at the Christmas night service in my husband's church.
The pastor made a sermon about the luminaria. (If you click on the link you'll find the church's website, they have an archieve for sermons, but it's not on yet) What really speaked to me was his example of the Bible teacher who wanted to explain the reading of Isaiah (The people who walked in the darkness saw a light arise..)She looked for the darkest place in the school. She found a basement room so dark that you couldn't see anything. Then after 5 long minutes, she lit a tiny candle. And that made all the difference. This is Christmas. We want the Glory of God full strenght, let's be blind with awesomness! And all we get is this tiny tealight. A baby is born. The Prince of Peace, the King of kings. And here he is, in the tiny town of bethlehem, not even in the town actually, in a manger, with shephard to worship him...
This is the beauty of Christmas. God cares. :)
Have a blessed Christmas!