thedrifter
12-25-08, 06:42 AM
Christmas spirit only as strong as the human heart
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Muskegon Chronicle
Today, a world tormented by pain, fear, violence, hate, war and economic turmoil steps back and considers the alternative.
We all know what that is. A four-letter word: Love.
For Christians, the meaning of Dec. 25 is clear. The birth of Jesus Christ is cause for celebration not simply because their Savior was born in a lowly Bethlehem manager 2,000 years ago, but because Jesus was a gift from God -- his son born to save them from themselves.
Yet this holiday of hope holds a universal message to inspire not only Christians, but the other great religions of the world.
Go anywhere today, and you will find Christmas.
You will find it in Afghanistan at a lonely tree standing inside some sand-blasted outpost where U.S. Marines stand guard against terror.
You'll find it at a place still known as Ground Zero, the site of a terrible outrage against civilization itself.
You'll find Christmas in a child's gasp of delight at a new toy.
It's in the lights that twinkle along our streets.
In a perfect snowflake.
In a reunion.
In a kiss.
Those who have been hurt, be it physically or through the anguish of a lost job or an illness, or through an inexplicable act of violence, may question how a single day can change anything.
They ask the most difficult question of all.
Today, on this day of peace, people are dying of disease, hunger, racism, war and neglect. Today, bombs fall and bullets tear flesh in the far corners of the world, and in our own neighborhoods, too. On this day of all days, in dark corners, plots of murder and terror are being hatched, perhaps even being executed.
Somewhere out there in homes like ours and in homes not like ours, children are being taught to hate other children, and lies are being spread to cause more hate. Crimes against others are being fomented for no reason other than the victims are somehow different. Are they?
Those screams we hear, or will be hearing, could be our own child's, or our mother's. They could be ours.
Can it be stopped? Is there an answer?
Is a single day, given over to mark the birth of one regarded by many as perhaps the most perfect being to ever set sandal to dust, enough to right the wrongs of this world, to extinguish the fires of hatred, to replace fanaticism with reason?
One could go mad asking such questions.
Or we could keep searching.
In the darkness not all is night when there are beacons like Christmas.
It tells us that if there is anything common to the human spirit, it is that sense that we can be better than what we are -- if only we could reach out to one another with understanding and with the purest of emotions, love. What President Abraham Lincoln called "The better angels of our nature."
Peace on Earth. Good will to men. It is within the means of all of us to release these angels from our own hearts and let them take flight. Imagine what a world that could be.
Maybe it will happen one day.
Maybe on Christmas.
Ellie
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Muskegon Chronicle
Today, a world tormented by pain, fear, violence, hate, war and economic turmoil steps back and considers the alternative.
We all know what that is. A four-letter word: Love.
For Christians, the meaning of Dec. 25 is clear. The birth of Jesus Christ is cause for celebration not simply because their Savior was born in a lowly Bethlehem manager 2,000 years ago, but because Jesus was a gift from God -- his son born to save them from themselves.
Yet this holiday of hope holds a universal message to inspire not only Christians, but the other great religions of the world.
Go anywhere today, and you will find Christmas.
You will find it in Afghanistan at a lonely tree standing inside some sand-blasted outpost where U.S. Marines stand guard against terror.
You'll find it at a place still known as Ground Zero, the site of a terrible outrage against civilization itself.
You'll find Christmas in a child's gasp of delight at a new toy.
It's in the lights that twinkle along our streets.
In a perfect snowflake.
In a reunion.
In a kiss.
Those who have been hurt, be it physically or through the anguish of a lost job or an illness, or through an inexplicable act of violence, may question how a single day can change anything.
They ask the most difficult question of all.
Today, on this day of peace, people are dying of disease, hunger, racism, war and neglect. Today, bombs fall and bullets tear flesh in the far corners of the world, and in our own neighborhoods, too. On this day of all days, in dark corners, plots of murder and terror are being hatched, perhaps even being executed.
Somewhere out there in homes like ours and in homes not like ours, children are being taught to hate other children, and lies are being spread to cause more hate. Crimes against others are being fomented for no reason other than the victims are somehow different. Are they?
Those screams we hear, or will be hearing, could be our own child's, or our mother's. They could be ours.
Can it be stopped? Is there an answer?
Is a single day, given over to mark the birth of one regarded by many as perhaps the most perfect being to ever set sandal to dust, enough to right the wrongs of this world, to extinguish the fires of hatred, to replace fanaticism with reason?
One could go mad asking such questions.
Or we could keep searching.
In the darkness not all is night when there are beacons like Christmas.
It tells us that if there is anything common to the human spirit, it is that sense that we can be better than what we are -- if only we could reach out to one another with understanding and with the purest of emotions, love. What President Abraham Lincoln called "The better angels of our nature."
Peace on Earth. Good will to men. It is within the means of all of us to release these angels from our own hearts and let them take flight. Imagine what a world that could be.
Maybe it will happen one day.
Maybe on Christmas.
Ellie