—Luke 2:14
Christmas. Birth. New life. Celebrating the birth of the rabbi who taught us to turn the other cheek, to answer hate with love.
Christmas. A birth celebrated by a messenger calling for peace and goodwill on earth. What a great religion, one that celebrates peace, a celebration build upon understanding the horror of war.
Christmas, a major holiday for 2.2 billion mostly Latin Americans, East Europeans, Africans, Asians, even as Christianity declines in North America and Western Europe; as Islam grows in the East.
“God is love.”
—John 4:8
Each person comes to religion in their own way. For me, life has purpose, and that purpose is love. Love is a powerful force inside each of us, or else life is without meaning. Want to understand God? Understand love. The joy of living beyond oneself, the joy of giving.
“Judge not, and you will not be judged.”
—Luke 6:37
How can we as imperfect humans, so ignorant in relation to all that is impossible to know, take upon ourselves the work of God? I fear calls for “justice.” They come from people convinced they are our betters. Christ took on such “betters,” the priests of his day.
We are all equal before God, flawed, striving, unworthy of being forgiven but through grace, forgiven anyway to free us to love.
My thoughts. I have no special insight, though I have lived a life.
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