How did you all get ready to celebrate the Lord's birthday? I hope you all had a happy celebration for the most important event in our life !
Allow us to share the following reflections about Christmas and gifts.
Most Christmas preparations nowadays focus on buying and exchanging gifts and visiting and having reunions with family and friends. The more important spiritual reason for the season is, sadly, often forgotten, and the earthly, often commercialized version of Christ's birth allowed to take precedence over the sacred dimension!
The glitter and merry sounds everywhere are a stark contrast to the silent and holiest of nights when our Lord was born. His entrance in the world is beautiful to ponder upon this eve of Christmas.
There was a comet or a bright star that shone upon the lowly manger and that led the 3 wise magi to find baby Jesus reminding us all that God will always lead us to Him, no matter what. The stars were all out and the angels' voices triumphantly heralding the birth of the Son of God! Again, God's message- where God is, music and praise will always be heard!
Can you all imagine how the shepherds may have felt experiencing the heavenly sights and music? Can you all also imagine how they felt when they saw Baby Jesus with Mama Mary and Papa Joseph? Would they have not wondered why a child was born in a manger? Why did a child have to be made to share the space reserved for animals, not fit for a human being?
Here we see the depth of God's love for us. Driven away by selfish inn owners, a symbol of the selfish, evil nature of people, God humbly allowed His Son to be born amidst the animals in a manger. Another symbolism with that lowly yet divine birth is the expansive love and forgiveness of God to treat all lowly human beings, animals without souls, as His own, deserving to be restored to and with God after this earthly life.
Why did God the Father share God His Son with us? His gift of love and redemption is His best gift to us all for all seasons, for all eternity.
Not content with that best gift, God the Father graced us with our families -- He allowed us to see His Son be born to His humble, obedient, and God-loving parents to serve as our model of a loving family. Jesus was born into a family to allow us to see, to experience the depth of family love so that this earthly experience will allow us to see the unfathomable depth of God's love and allow us to imagine the immeasurable joy we will experience once we rejoin our heavenly family with God!
And so, every Christmas, we are reminded of several gifts made available to us all, if only are hearts open to recognize and appreciate these precious gifts.
God has graced us with His heavenly love witnessed by the birth of His only Son on earth. His birth and His death will complete our redemption and reunion with God the Father.
In the meantime, God gave us earthly life and earthly families and friends for us to experience the beauty of love and special relationships. God gifted us differentially -to experience His beautiful sights, to hear His wonderful sounds , especially His guiding voice , to experience meaningful relationships with loved ones, with others and with His earth and all His creations!
God gave us Himself -- His continuing presence because of His great love for us.
And so this and every Christmas, we are always reminded of God's gifts for all seasons- His eternal love and redemption, His gift of life for us all - earthly and eternal. His eternal presence with us in this earth, through the daily Eucharist, throughout family, friends and all of His other creatures and creations!
We are never alone or giftless every Christmas or for that matter, everyday or forever. Christ was born to remind us of God's greatest gifts for us -- His love, Eternal life and joy with Him, our family and everyone and everything else that He created for us all!!! Christ also came that we remember to share His love and joy through our presence and live with all!
Christmas is forever -- so with God's gifts for us to share with all else always, beyond the 25th of December, beyond this season! So much gifts to be thankful for always!