The Christmas Lament

Appreciating Grief

When considering the tragedy of murdered children, it occurs to me there are other murdered children, unnamed, that must not be forgotten.

The Last Arrivals at Christmas:  According to Matthew 2: 1-18:
We tend to lump Mary, Jesus and Joseph in Bethlehem with no roof in the inn, shepherds, and wise men all together at Christmas. In reality the wise men arrived later. And they naturally, following the star, stopped first where you would expect to find a new King. They stopped in the palace. Now old Herod, he didn’t have to act surprised but he did hide his alarm and play nice and help find where this prophesied King was to arrive. He sent the wise men on their way.

Now whether it was just the dream that warned them, or whether they heard things about Herod en route to the babe, but they really were wise enough to see he didn’t want them to tell them where that baby was so he could worship. He wanted to kill that innocent child. So, being wise, they blew out of there on their four footed ride’s in the opposite direction.

Matthew 2:1-18
Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth, and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently inquired of the wise men

Did God warn anyone else?

Did anyone else heed the warning? Or wake up and think “Oh, bad dream” and roll over and go back to sleep?  What about the soldiers given the order? Did they hesitate, reminded of their own children or siblings?  Did any find themselves alone, with a brief moment of decision when they uncovered a mother cowering with a baby boy and take the opportunity to make a shush motion and hide them again?  How did these men live with themselves afterward? What hatred this must’ve instilled in the survivor’s and their older children – scarred for life by such evil.

Sadly, Herod needed no rapid fire weapons to pull off the atrocity, he only needed soldiers and a position of power.

Some who argue the Bible is false will say that if this truly happened more evidence would’ve been uncovered. But apparently, evidence that Herod was wicked enough to perform these kind of things was common. It’s only news if it rarely happens.

This is where appreciating grief comes in.

It is definitely true to say history is full of children sold into slavery, murdered and sacrificed to idols. Such things do slip under the radar today. But when they rise to our attention, we tend to act, floundering at times and unsure what to do, but we don’t ignore it.  We rage. We cry. We wonder why. So perhaps we should appreciate our grief. For once upon a time it was only the mother’s of Rama who wept for the children. Now we all do. We no longer consider it normal, or the cost of normal kingdoms and rulers, of soldiers and politics. We no longer consider acceptable or unchangeable and hide under the bed and hope we are overlooked.

After a horrific tragedy and mass shooting, lots of people start battling it out about gun control. In point of fact, it’s safe to say what little the Founding Father’s put into the Constitution and Bill of Rights, was based on weapons without modern capability of fast reloads and massive destruction of auto fire. They couldn’t imagine a database of criminals who would misuse the weapons, so how could they plan whether to sell a gun based on it’s information?  It’s also safe to say they weren’t perfect or there would’ve been no civil war later to end slavery, it would’ve happened right then.

I don’t claim to know what will make us safer. Better gun control for automatic weapons, keeping them out of criminals hands, better mental health care. But I know we must care, that the Herod’s of the world should shudder. For no longer do we stand by and accept the norm. One thing we should do is remember that while gun control is an issue debated in our borders, there our other children in the world’s danger zones too.  And we shouldn’t let issues like political red tape or economy prevent us for caring. For once upon a time, Jesus was one of those children too. So was Einstein, Gandhi, Mother Teresa, Madame Curie, Charles Dickens, Billy Graham,…..a world of unknown potential waiting to be uncovered. It shouldn’t be stopped by bullet, sword or a rock to the head.

As for where was God?

He was in the Principle challenging the gunman and every other adult in that school who defended and hid the children. He was with every policeman and fireman who runs into the line of fire, whether little or figurative to defend them. He was with children around the world, urging their protection. He was with every soldier who hesitates at the sight of a child and tries to defend his troops and his country without harming the innocent.

In other words…. He’s probably asking where are we. Because you don’t need to be a preacher or a pastor, just a believer whose read about Jesus, to know that he called on us to do the defending. He gave us power to care and pray and act.  And I believe the power has already succeeded in changing us partway. Because now, instead of just crying for the few children in our family or neighborhood we find it in our hearts to cry for them all.

I Care Teddy Bear
I Care Teddy Bear

References:

Principle trying to stop Gunman when Killed – Regarding the recent events in Conneticut

Fair Trade Policy for Chocolate – Did you know slave labor is used in making some chocolate?

Save the Children – Dedicated to the welfare of children around the world.

Prostitution of Children – Wiki of the facts. But there are lots of articles and blogs on the subject around the world. Just Google it.

 

A Tragic Merry Christmas

A Story Inspired by Reality. This is how I imagine it….

by T.A.Paxton

On Earth parents are weeping. Angels hover close by, offering comfort. They don’t show their wings or glow. They don’t offer empty words of  “This was God’s will” or “If prayer were in schools…” No, they just say, “I’m so sorry. I don’t understand either.” And they offer to help in small ways, for there are no big ones to offer. To do the dishes, watch the other kids while sad arrangements must be made. They bring food to the grief stricken and offer hugs as families contemplate what to do…oh what to do…..with the already bought gifts whose children will never receive them. The Christmas lights seem to dim and they stare at the baby in it’s tiny mini manger and ask why?

Somewhere in heaven, God is weeping. Angels hustle to open the gates as children are ushered in by other angels. One angel stands even sadder than the others. “I could not dissuade him. Why do they misuse the gift of freedom so?”

Children are led straight to God who wraps them in strong arms and says “It’s all right now. You are safe forever.” He dries their tears but doesn’t hide his own.  “You are here earlier than we hoped. As long as you are early will you help us decorate?”
The children peer around in awe at the beauty of heaven. They are led to a room with the greatest Christmas tree of all.
“Would you like to help decorate it?”
One child asks in awe “There are no Christmas trees in the Bible. Do you like them too?”
“Well of course. I invented trees and lights. I think putting them together is wonderful. This is the father of all those trees.”
So the children begin putting balls on the tree, and carved ornaments.  When they are too short, an angel lifts them up.
“I was told you don’t like carved images.” Another child suddenly piped up, looking at God.
“Well, it depends on what it’s for. It’s silly to bend down and worship it. But I love stories. I like telling stories, it helps people learn. And these images tell stories. Look close.”
The child gasped. Others did as well. They could now see the ornaments told the stories of their lives.
“I can see Mom and my brothers hanging ornaments in this one!” One boy held up a bright red ornament amazed by the odd reflection.
“This has my Dad  holding my sister at the beach!”
“This one is a roller coaster….the first one I rode…and I’m in it!”
“Look, it’s my dog and he’s looking right out of this blue ball at me, like he’s carved inside! It looks like he can see me!”
God smiled. “All good things are remembered. And all the bad will be like grains of sand in comparison.”
“This one is moving!” One child looked close. For they weren’t moving like a store bought, battery operated ornament, or TV, but like life in miniature. “Hey! It’ s my family! Right now! They are crying…oh”  Another ball of glass popped out of the ornament, a string…..and the child looked up and saw it becoming a string and a garland.
The others found the same.  “Look, they are surrounded by angels.”
They hung the garlands. “But…it’s so sad. It’s their tears.”
“For every sad tear today, they will have many tears of joy again.” God assured them. “The hurt will poison them if it stays inside, so it comes out through tears instead. So I draw it out, if they will let me, and turn it into beauty.”

The smallest child went up solemnly and climbed in God’s lap, holding one of the ornaments. Looked up at the tall, tall tree, and back at God.
“Will our families remember us? We don’t have ornaments like this on Earth.”
“They will. Right now they hurt terribly. But one day, they will look at your favorite teddy bear ornament and say “oh how he loved this one.”  God looked at another. “Or at that favorite snow globe, or doll, or action figure and say “He or she played with it all the time. And they will smile, for they will miss you, but they will be oh, so glad that they had known you.”

And with that. they all went back to decorating the tree. And God smiled. Here in heaven at least all was well. Someday, He promised, someday it would be on Earth as well.

 

 

Comfort Angel Bear
Comfort Angel Bear

 

If you want to say Happy Holidays, lets say it all Year.

It's called Christmas

It's not that I have a problem with Happy Holidays. It's the fact that some people use it to discriminate. Truth be told just about every day of the year is someone's holiday, from the national Independance, to a birthday to a human rights day or national teddy bear or maple syrup days. Yes, those really are holidays. You could say happy holidays every day of the year, for that very reason. So why now? Because now is when the gear up for Christmas (albeit an overcommercialized one) is. And Christmas involves Christ.

Yes, I am Christian. Yes, I celebrate Christmas.  And if I say Merry or Happy Christmas I am wishing you a wonderful, peaceful, light filled season of joy. I am not whacking you on the head with a baby Jesus figurine and saying believe or else, nor sending a Santa in a tank to force a conversion. Believe it or not, when the Old Kris Kringle or Saint Nick or Santa in 'A Night Before Christmas' says Ho Ho Ho Merry Christmas, he isn't even quoting the Bible!

I wouldn't object if you told me Happy Hannukah or Kwanzaa.  I may not believe in them, or know much about them, but I wouldn't figure you meant it as an insult. Happy usually doesn't imply insult no matter what it precedes.

Holidays Are All Year

What's more, you don't say happy holidays on valentine's day or halloween. Saint Valentine and Saint Nicholas and even Saint Patrick were catholic saints. I'm not catholic, but I can still enjoy the holidays without insisting someone say 'happy holidays instead of happy st nicholas or saint valentine or saint patrick.. And I wouldn't assume the person doing the wishing was catholic, though it wouldn't matter much to whether I liked them or not if they were. It's a holiday, what's not to like? Some christians don't like halloween. I say, dress up and eat the candy. The candy will be on sale anyway and costumes bring out people's creative side. If you think dressing as a witch or zombie offensive, you can always dress as a teddy bear or a robot.

I wouldn't be offended to be told 'Happy Saint Patrick's Day' even though I'm not Irish.

Happy New Year might give me pause if it wasn't January first, but explain it's the mayan or hebrew or muslim calendar and I'll go happy new year right back.

As for the fourth of July: for all I know the person wishing me happy independence day could be from canada or australia. Or the person I'm wishing it too could be from Austria or Bulgaria. Just because they aren't a citizen doesn't mean they can't enjoy the fireworks.

Yet for some reason, all these holiday well wishes are 'acceptable' and Christmas is not. Ironic, how everything is tolerated….except being a christian, whether practicing or not.

 

So Happy National Brownie Day. And National Ice Cream Day, Human Rights Day, Poinsettia Day, National Maple syrup day……….should I go on?  So if we are going to go 'Happy Holidays'……then lets just say it all year. It's probably easier than saying Happy pop goes the weasel day, happy flip a coin day and all that. It's easier on the fatherless not to hear happy fathers day and the childless woman desperate for a baby to hear Happy Holidays than a Happy Mother's day. 

Besides it's a sure fire way to see who is paying attention. Say Happy Holidays in May and someone will probably do a double take.

So lighten up people. Enjoy the Christmas or Hanukkah lights.  No commitment required. Just an open heart and a childlike sense of wonder. But I'll bet without Christmas you wouldn't have all those holiday lights. We started it. And you can't take that away.

Sources:

http://www.theultimateholidaysite.com

http://www.holidayinsights.com

http://www.squidoo.com/Christmas-GoFish

Christmas Inspirations

Getting Them and Giving Them

When it comes to Christmas, one almost get’s overloaded on Inspiration. Christmas carols, symbols and holiday lights are all around. Snowmen pop up where there is no snow, usually in plastic of inflatable form. And I’ve yet to encounter a retail store without some version of a Christmas Teddy Bear. For me, having a Christmas tree is one of the big things. It needn’t be a big tree. But there is something about the smell and the lights and pretty decorations that says “Christmas”. It somehow reminds me of the beauty of a star filled sky and a winter landscape with snowy trees even if it’s 60 degrees outside and the tree is on a table in the house.

I love the challenge of coming up with holiday horses and teddy bear designs. And I love admiring the ones I see, special made from Breyer Animal Creations, The Trail of the Painted Ponies, Vermont teddy bears, artist teddy bears and all sorts of others. I can’t often afford to buy, but I can admire them nonetheless.

But the greatest challenge of the season comes from wondering how to give that gift of inspiration to others. The relatives with doom and gloom in their hearts due to bills threaten to dampen my own spirit. In fact, however many bills we have and however difficult it is with a new job and limited funds to pay them, we are well off. Some people have nothing but a cardboard box. Some people don’t even have their freedom or their health.

And I  must say I do get mad at people who stomp on the spirit. Not the ones who are just feeling low and worried, mind you.  It’s why I don’t like black Friday or shopping Christmas Eve. It has nothing to do with how I feel about sales, or the commercial apsects. It’s because instead of inspiring the spirit of giving, it inspires greed. People trample each other just to buy a toy. They rob each other. They block traffic intersections even though they can’t go anywhere and gridlock a whole neighborhood. No. To me that is not what Christmas is about. That takes a sacred holiday (and I mean sacred to most of us, even non Christians) about giving and turns it into a ‘who got the most gifts cheapest and fastest’ festival.

Now for me, I believe in the Christmas story. The whole miracle of God’s son coming down as a tiny baby and being born in a stable is wonderful. Maybe it appeals to me more because it was a stable. Animals are somehow more open and honest than people. I’ve sure never had one lie to me. So it doesn’t seem like a bad place to be born. I would think it would be a quiet place. It’s the theme of the undeserved, unexpected and easily taken for granted special gift. A gift that arrived unlooked for. t’s easy to overlook such things in our modern world. We are busier, noisier and needier than ever before. Face it. Back then they didn’t need cars, or computers. But the modern American economy wish crash flat if they all ceased to function, and a sizable chunk of the rest of the world would too. Of course, I doubt Mary and Joseph thought of it as peaceful to begin with. Traveling by donkey and finding noisy crowds,  then realizing she was about to give birth probably seemed pretty chaotic to them. Imagine Joseph’s reaction when she said the baby was coming. I can imagine him holding the donkey’s rope and going “NOW?” in dismay, whilst looking frantically around for somewhere, anywhere, for her to have the child. He was probably silently pleading with the promised ‘Son of God’ in her womb to stay there for just awhile longer.

Others may just enjoy Christmas as a time of giving gifts and being with family. I believe in Santa Claus too. Look him up you’ll find there really was a Santa Claus. Legend often starts as a grain of truth. It’s often seen in cheesy holiday movies these days that the kid realizes the Santa in the suit at the mall isn’t the ‘real’ Santa. But I’m not so sure of that. He may not be the original Santa. But I think Santa Claus comes back to the purest most basic form of the Christmas story: a giver of gifts, which contrary to the naughty and nice idea may not even be deserved or asked for. If they hold a generous heart every mall Santa is Santa. And so is every Dad assembling a new bike at two AM.  Every Mom is Santa or Mrs. Santa even if she’s a single mom juggling two jobs trying desperately to feed the kid, let alone give them a gift.

Now for  me, money is kind of tight. New job, old bills and the usual woes. But I know there are many people far worse off and this is my prayer: That they should all be given that gift of the unexpected kindness this Christmas. An unexpected dinner from a friend, a bill paid they weren’t sure how to cover, the hug of true friendship and an unexpected bonus of a special toy or music or other inspirational gift.

And I will believe, I have to, both on Christmas and off that we have to have faith in more than just our own little selves. If I only had that, I’d be a wreck. How could I hope to pay these bills? To earn enough money? On my own, I couldn’t. Because it takes more than one person to support one person. It takes an employer to hire, customers who want whatever your offering, family and friends to support when your low or when the first two aren’t available. It takes agencies to help with bills, or job seeking. It takes doctors and nurses to help one stay healthy. Not a one of us really truly functions alone. And when you see someone homeless on the street, they may not have gotten there alone either. Are they really too lazy to work, or do they have health or mental issues? Do they have family? Would they take help if it was offered? Sometimes it only takes one act of kindness to make a difference. And to give that you have to have that Christmas faith that it will help, even if you can’t see the results in the short term or perhaps ever at all. Call it ‘Do unto others’ or even Karma, but in the end the kindness comes back in unexpected ways.

The most important thing about Christmas inspirations is, it has to hold for more than just a day. The power of giving an unexpected kindness is just as strong throughout the year. It has to be because the rest of the year there are no Christmas trees or bright holiday lights to remind us.