Today is Christmas Eve. In my belief system as a Christian, we celebrate the birth of Jesus. The story goes that a baby was born in a manger in the city of Bethlehem. Now, there are billions of people on Earth and many of them are Christian and they believe this story. However, there are also many people who aren’t Christian, and they don’t believe or even know this story. I love celebrating the birth of Jesus every year and the love that He brought to the world, but I have to ask: Does it really matter if the story is true? What if Jesus was born in the summer instead of in the winter? What if other aspects of the story aren’t historically accurate? Does it really change anything?
I don’t think it does. The story of Christ’s birth for me isn’t about history; it’s about the love of God and the love of family. His birth isn’t about a man who was born a little over two thousand years ago in the Middle East, his birth is about the story of God’s Grace and a new covenant for all of us. Jesus is my Savior. His story helps me to understand who God is. Tomorrow, on Christmas day, I will celebrate His birth. I don’t know exactly how it happened or where it happened. I just know that God gave a part of Himself for me and for all of us and that is worth celebrating.
I was thinking about the idea about dualities: Happy and sad, strong and weak, male and female, hot and cold. There’s one that gives me a problem and it’s hate and love. Often when someone stops loving like in divorce, the feelings turn to hate. I think people often think that hate and love are opposites. However, I don’t really think it’s true. When a person hates or loves they experience very strong emotions and the physical responses are similar as well. I think that hate and love are similar emotions love is the emotion in the positive energy and in it’s greatest energy it is filled with the spirit of God. I believe that hate is the same emotion in the negative energy and in it’s greatest energy it is filled with the spirit of evil. The opposite of this emotion is indifference or apathy. People can do the most amazing miraculous actions when filled with the positive emotion and at the same time they can do the most atrocious evil actions when filled with the negative emotion. I believe it is up to us to choose if we are going to take the love God gives us and use it for positive or negative. Christmas is the day; I celebrate that gift of love God has given me. I struggle every day, but I know I want more than anything to choose to work the positive energy of the love God has given me.
My faith saved me. May God’s peace reside in all of our hearts.
