Brightly-lit trees, merry songs and glitzy packages seem like noisy intruders into a world whipped apart by hurricanes, crumbled by earthquakes, scorched by wildfires and wounded by mad shooters. How can we possibly celebrate a festive holiday amidst such loss?
There is only one answer: Christ.
I go back to the basics when my faith feels challenged. Genesis 1 and John 1 reveal the reason why all those hurting can celebrate Christmas. Jesus not only created the world, He died to offer us an eternal inheritance and an incomprehensible friendship.
Creation's grandeur puts life in perspective. Our tiny planet rotates as it circles the sun, which hurtles through space with a hundred billion other suns in our galaxy, the Milky Way. Our galaxy then travels among a hundred billion other galaxies. In the midst of it all, Earth hangs on to its atmosphere so we can watch our sunsets, fly our airplanes and breathe.
Earth's size and distance from the sun is perfect; the sun's rays filter through air molecules, allowing just the right amount of light and heat for us to thrive. Considering the sun is 10 million degrees on its surface, a little sunscreen and an air conditioner in summer and a sweater and heater in winter are minimal adjustments.
Miraculous water; it not only quenches our thirst, cleans everything and everyone and provides habitat for millions of species, but it freezes for spring planting use and athletic games. It also carries ships around the globe.
The world kitchens display different herbs, spices and foods. On a wintery day I enjoy the scent of ginger cookies baking and a pot of stew boiling in the Crock-Pot. Jesus did not have to create such things. He did not have to give us pets along with His array of creatures. He did not have to give the hummingbird fluorescent feathers or paint the wildflowers in remote mountain meadows.
And then, there's technology! Sometimes I feel like I am living in a science fiction movie. I understand people's anxiety when cell towers are down and they cannot reach a loved one, but it wasn't that many years ago when people relied on the Pony Express for news. I'm in there with everyone else; I don't know what I'd do without my cellphone, and I enjoy getting into my temperature-controlled car rather than traveling on a buckboard. Isn't it interesting that all the materials for our modern world, all the metal, glass, and plastic, come from the earth, and they have been there since earth began. God now allows us to make use of them. He even gave us computer-like brains to invent such modern wonders.
I pause without technology for a moment and watch snowflakes dust the last of the autumn leaves lying in the yard and thank God for the seasons. I know that in six months (here in Canada) I will watch robins and spring flowers return. Woven through 2017's tragedies are stories of people helping people. Love survives tragedies. It is the greatest gift we can give or receive. I understand more what the apostle Paul meant when he said, And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. (1 Corinthians 13:13, NIV).
Sue Carlisle grew up on the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming. An enrolled member of the Ponca Tribe of Nebraska, her passion is to encourage people to look at creation and see our awesome Creator. Sue is author of Walking with the Creator Along the Narrow Road (2013 Indian Life Books) and a columnist for Indian Life. She and her husband, Wes, now live in Thunder Bay, Ontario.
