Yo-yo Christmas!

It happened some twenty years ago on a sweltering summer’s day. A friend had given us his bird cage which he wanted to dispose off. We put the tottering cage up in our terrace without cleaning up the old grains that came with it. One day when we woke up in the morning and went up to the terrace a surprise awaited us. A baby parrot had somehow managed to get in to pick the grains but was trapped. He found no way to come out of the tightly locked cage and kept wailing. Then, as we watched, the parents came flying from nowhere and sat on the parapet wall near the cage and kept responding, not minding our presence. May be a cacophony of “Mummeeee, Dadeeee” and “Babeeee.” Back and forth, back and forth went the lamentations. Then the father flew away and brought fruits and started feeding through the mesh but the baby would not eat. Hours flew by.

We watched, very moved from morning till night and went off to sleep. First thing next morning we leapt up the steps to the terrace. There we stood transfixed, our faces etched with shock and disbelief. All was quiet. The mother parrot was inside the locked cage and the baby was perched calm and quiet, the father feeding them both. A knife twisted within me. As my eyes filled and the scene blurred, my perception snapped into brilliant focus. That’s Christmas!

How sad! But that’s our jubilance. God the Son came to be with us, to sacrifice His life, seeing our light. Christmas is a time of mirth remembering the goodness of God, even though there is so much pain and sorrow surrounding it. When the expectation of merry Christmas starts tickling us even in the beginning of December, it is always see-see see and never saw-saw-saw. By that I mean, our feelings of Christmas are invariably up and never drooping. That’s how it should be. But in reality, when we go into the details of the Christmas story, it was one of see- saw, up and down, a yo-yo!

The Christmas story starts with a celebration— the engagement function of Mary and Joseph. There was excitement and thrill in the star-struck couple as they exchanged gifts. The relatives gorged themselves on the feast. It was a short lived joy. The appearance of an angel to Mary was a magic moment.

The happiness evanesced as Mary’s virgin pregnancy came to light. Joseph was aghast at the turn of events. The one verse in the Bible is not sufficient to reveal the emotional torture the young man underwent, unless you let your imagination run free.

A bomb had gone off in his chest. His tormented soul found relief at the ethereal intervention and the ‘saw’ started to ‘see.’ It was joy Don’t worry if you falter in your chase after God. Begin again.mixed with sadness. The joy was that God had chosen him as the earthly father of the Messiah. The sadness was that he had to be a married bachelor. Probably friends and relatives blamed him for Mary’s condition and his approval to marry a pregnant girl only confirmed their suspicion. Was it see or saw? Then the wedding ceremony. On the one side it was a merry occasion for the godly people who believed Mary’s story about the angel. For the other section of the crowd it was a ridiculous fiction supplying material for gossip. People were startingly outspoken beyond earshot of the couple. Maybe because of the situation it was a low profile wedding. Mary and Joseph were able to take the joy with the trouble, the trouble with the joy.

When parents look forward to their first baby they swell with pride and bubble with excitement preparing everything for the new arrival. But the decree of Caesar Augustus shattered their hopes of a cozy little home for their bundle of joy. A long journey was followed by an anticlimax birth in a cowshed in their own native village. Think of it! Not a soul to take them in their own place! The most wonderful gift on earth was wrapped up in a dirty manger.

The joy of seeing their baby’s face mingled with the excitement of being the first persons to witness the face of the Son of God carried them up to the stars. The Shepherd’s arrival and their narration confirming the birth of the Messiah made their hearts tremble with glee.

If the Christmas story is followed up, the see-saw continues to swing. The proud parents take Him to the temple on the 8th day to experience exciting events yet return home worrying about the, ‘sword that will pierce.’ Simeon’s words would have hit them like bullets. Think of three great men visiting you in a mercedasbenz with gold jewellery and other costly items to present them to you on a platter. It was the same thrilling experience for Jesus’ parents when the Magi came looking for Him.

Again the joy was short lived. At the warning of the angel the father and mother had to take up their flight to Egypt in the safety of darkness. Later came the glad news of the death of Herod. Jesus grew up in a carpenter’s family living austerely to make ends meet, with atleast six siblings. Later, He Himself worked as a carpenter and along the way taught himself to read and write. Till His death (saw) and resurrection (see) His life was up and down, joy and sorrow.

The climax in the life of Christ is the glorious resurrection and ascension. In His sojourn, sunshine and shadow were intertwined. There were heroes like John the Baptist and villains like Judas Iscariot. He had friends and foes. There were breath taking miracles and times when he could not perform many miracles. He was garlanded and goaded, surrounded by praises and poisons. His own brothers did not believe Him though He had a band of faithful followers. He enjoyed exotic feasts but at other times went hungry looking for figs. God spoke to Him from above but forsook Him when he hung on the cross.

At times His words were well received and at times there was stiff opposition. There were times when He embraced life with zest and there were times when He cried like a baby.

Is the Christmas story repeating in our lives?

Childhood has sweet and sour memories. We grow up bludgeoned with love and affection but at times suffer a hole in our hearts we think will never be healed. Then we strike gold only to be followed by mind-numbing despair. Tragedies and triumphs alternate. Our tinsel world is dappled with black paint. When we feel life can get no darker, the sun bursts over the horizon. Success and failure stalk behind us.

Most of us marry in a daze of euphoria imagining life to be an unbroken crescendo of exhilaration. Far from it. After the exciting engagement comes the degrading dowry talk or a similar bickery. Then the marriage galore like that of Diana and Charles with all gilt and glamour. As soon as the honey-moon is over the couple who climbed the hill of exceeding joy come tumbling down like Jack and Jill. This  climbing up and tumbling down continues throughout life. In moments of joy they keep wishing it will last forever but secretly fearing the inevitable crash down. Some days are rainbows and some days rotten. Health and sickness, bonus and debt, praises and slights, congratulations and condemnations, broken relationships and new friends, attention and indifference take their turns to push us down and pull us up. Life is like a game of snakes and ladders. Sometimes we get bitten by a snake and at other times get a ladder to climb. Whatever may happen we must keep moving towards the goal.

Talk to anyone and he’ll tell you how his life is following the harrowing ECG pattern. If you pull back the facade in every admired personality you will find moments of deep depression. It is scary when you go down the lowest low and you quickly conclude “It is finished.” The human mind is specialist in focussing on the downs, ignoring the ups. The problems of children, parents, neighbours, in-laws, friends, spouse, finance, sickness all toss us about like tornadoes. But God blesses us with good times too. That’s why we sing, “Count your blessings.” “He who can’t endure the bad, will not live to see the good” says an Yiddish proverb. Jesus set the joy of eternity before Him so every trial would seem like a mosquito bite. That’s what Christmas is all about.

Take a foolscap paper, paint a small dot in the centre and show it to a friend. Ask her what she sees. She will most certainly reply, “A dot.” No one will ever mention the large white space around the dot. That’s we. Christmas is the time to see the large white space in our lives and close our eyes to the dot.

I read in a Guideposts magazine about Gail Gorumba who had lost her husband, her father and son, all in one year. Yet she was the one comforting her family. Giuliani asked her how she could get through so much tragedy with such remarkable poise. “Whenever terrible things happen” she said, “I focus on the good things life gives you. So now, I’m thinking about my daughter’s wedding.”

Rudy Giuliani, New York’s mayor during 11 September 2001 says, “The idea that in the worst times of life, you have to take full advantage of the beautiful things that come along—I think that’s what living is all about.”

“Life isn’t always ideal or romantic. It’s a series of triumphs and disappointments and that’s okay” says Adrian Grenier, star of the HBO series “Eutourage” whose father dropped out of his life when he was just five.

May be your life is full of ugly black dots. But when you finally connect the dots a beautiful picture will emerge. That’s a fun-game God plays with us. If you get to see the big picture it’s a Christmas.

Worrying is like a rocking chair. It gives you something to do but takes you nowhere. So stop running about like a headless chicken and enjoy the blessings of life.

I watched my 2 year old grand daughter as she licked her ice-cream dripping all over her with a gleeful grin. Then she got down from her perch, tripped, fell down and screamed. I thought within myself, “That’s life—ice-creams and screams.” That’s Christmas too!

If you focus on the good things of life your mind will light up like a Christmas tree and your life itself will become another Christmas!

  Articles (Tamil)

   Updated
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  Address for Correspondence Contributions

Dr. Lilian Stanley
13 Church Colony
Vellore 632006, India
 +91 9843511943
  lilianstanley@gmail.com

Blessing Youth Mission

Blessing Youth Mission
13 Church Colony
Vellore 632006, India
 +91-416-2242943, +91-416-2248943
  hq@bymonline.org
  www.bymonline.org

For Donation & Contributions...

Home & NRE donors

Name: Blessing Youth Mission
Account Type: Current Account
A/c No.: 37268642054
Bank: State Bank of India
Branch: Siruthozhil,Vellore - 632 006
IFSC No.: SBIN0007274

Gulf Donors

A/c Name: T.Dickson Daniel Moses
Account Type: Saving Account
A/c No.: 35374362080
Bank: State Bank of India
Branch: Siruthozhil,Vellore - 632 006
IFSF: SBIN0007274

Click here for more options

  Blessing Literature Centre

To buy books written by Dr. Lilian Stanley, kindly reach to us in the follwing address

Blessing Literature Centre
21/11 West Coovam River Road,
Chintadripet,
Chennai 600 002, India.
 +91-44-28450411, 8806270699
  blc@bymonline.org

  Articles (Tamil)

   Updated
  •   இறைவார்த்தையின் வல்லமை!.
      Mar 10, 2024
    நாம் ஜெபிக்கவேண்டும்தான். அனால் இரன்டு காரணங்களுக்காக நாம் சோதிக்கப்படும்படி தேவன் அனுமதிக்கிறார் more...
  •   நான் குழந்தை இயேசு!.
      Jan 29, 2024
    அப்பாவின் கவலை தோய்ந்த முகம் பூலோகத்தையே உற்று நோக்கி கொண்டிருந்ததை கவனித்தேன் more...

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Yo-yo Christmas!

It happened some twenty years ago on a sweltering summer’s day. A friend had given us his bird cage which he wanted to dispose off. We put the tottering cage up in our terrace without cleaning up the old grains that came with it. One day when we woke up in the morning and went up to the terrace a surprise awaited us. A baby parrot had somehow managed to get in to pick the grains but was trapped. He found no way to come out of the tightly locked cage and kept wailing. Then, as we watched, the parents came flying from nowhere and sat on the parapet wall near the cage and kept responding, not minding our presence. May be a cacophony of “Mummeeee, Dadeeee” and “Babeeee.” Back and forth, back and forth went the lamentations. Then the father flew away and brought fruits and started feeding through the mesh but the baby would not eat. Hours flew by.

We watched, very moved from morning till night and went off to sleep. First thing next morning we leapt up the steps to the terrace. There we stood transfixed, our faces etched with shock and disbelief. All was quiet. The mother parrot was inside the locked cage and the baby was perched calm and quiet, the father feeding them both. A knife twisted within me. As my eyes filled and the scene blurred, my perception snapped into brilliant focus. That’s Christmas!

How sad! But that’s our jubilance. God the Son came to be with us, to sacrifice His life, seeing our light. Christmas is a time of mirth remembering the goodness of God, even though there is so much pain and sorrow surrounding it. When the expectation of merry Christmas starts tickling us even in the beginning of December, it is always see-see see and never saw-saw-saw. By that I mean, our feelings of Christmas are invariably up and never drooping. That’s how it should be. But in reality, when we go into the details of the Christmas story, it was one of see- saw, up and down, a yo-yo!

The Christmas story starts with a celebration— the engagement function of Mary and Joseph. There was excitement and thrill in the star-struck couple as they exchanged gifts. The relatives gorged themselves on the feast. It was a short lived joy. The appearance of an angel to Mary was a magic moment.

The happiness evanesced as Mary’s virgin pregnancy came to light. Joseph was aghast at the turn of events. The one verse in the Bible is not sufficient to reveal the emotional torture the young man underwent, unless you let your imagination run free.

A bomb had gone off in his chest. His tormented soul found relief at the ethereal intervention and the ‘saw’ started to ‘see.’ It was joy Don’t worry if you falter in your chase after God. Begin again.mixed with sadness. The joy was that God had chosen him as the earthly father of the Messiah. The sadness was that he had to be a married bachelor. Probably friends and relatives blamed him for Mary’s condition and his approval to marry a pregnant girl only confirmed their suspicion. Was it see or saw? Then the wedding ceremony. On the one side it was a merry occasion for the godly people who believed Mary’s story about the angel. For the other section of the crowd it was a ridiculous fiction supplying material for gossip. People were startingly outspoken beyond earshot of the couple. Maybe because of the situation it was a low profile wedding. Mary and Joseph were able to take the joy with the trouble, the trouble with the joy.

When parents look forward to their first baby they swell with pride and bubble with excitement preparing everything for the new arrival. But the decree of Caesar Augustus shattered their hopes of a cozy little home for their bundle of joy. A long journey was followed by an anticlimax birth in a cowshed in their own native village. Think of it! Not a soul to take them in their own place! The most wonderful gift on earth was wrapped up in a dirty manger.

The joy of seeing their baby’s face mingled with the excitement of being the first persons to witness the face of the Son of God carried them up to the stars. The Shepherd’s arrival and their narration confirming the birth of the Messiah made their hearts tremble with glee.

If the Christmas story is followed up, the see-saw continues to swing. The proud parents take Him to the temple on the 8th day to experience exciting events yet return home worrying about the, ‘sword that will pierce.’ Simeon’s words would have hit them like bullets. Think of three great men visiting you in a mercedasbenz with gold jewellery and other costly items to present them to you on a platter. It was the same thrilling experience for Jesus’ parents when the Magi came looking for Him.

Again the joy was short lived. At the warning of the angel the father and mother had to take up their flight to Egypt in the safety of darkness. Later came the glad news of the death of Herod. Jesus grew up in a carpenter’s family living austerely to make ends meet, with atleast six siblings. Later, He Himself worked as a carpenter and along the way taught himself to read and write. Till His death (saw) and resurrection (see) His life was up and down, joy and sorrow.

The climax in the life of Christ is the glorious resurrection and ascension. In His sojourn, sunshine and shadow were intertwined. There were heroes like John the Baptist and villains like Judas Iscariot. He had friends and foes. There were breath taking miracles and times when he could not perform many miracles. He was garlanded and goaded, surrounded by praises and poisons. His own brothers did not believe Him though He had a band of faithful followers. He enjoyed exotic feasts but at other times went hungry looking for figs. God spoke to Him from above but forsook Him when he hung on the cross.

At times His words were well received and at times there was stiff opposition. There were times when He embraced life with zest and there were times when He cried like a baby.

Is the Christmas story repeating in our lives?

Childhood has sweet and sour memories. We grow up bludgeoned with love and affection but at times suffer a hole in our hearts we think will never be healed. Then we strike gold only to be followed by mind-numbing despair. Tragedies and triumphs alternate. Our tinsel world is dappled with black paint. When we feel life can get no darker, the sun bursts over the horizon. Success and failure stalk behind us.

Most of us marry in a daze of euphoria imagining life to be an unbroken crescendo of exhilaration. Far from it. After the exciting engagement comes the degrading dowry talk or a similar bickery. Then the marriage galore like that of Diana and Charles with all gilt and glamour. As soon as the honey-moon is over the couple who climbed the hill of exceeding joy come tumbling down like Jack and Jill. This  climbing up and tumbling down continues throughout life. In moments of joy they keep wishing it will last forever but secretly fearing the inevitable crash down. Some days are rainbows and some days rotten. Health and sickness, bonus and debt, praises and slights, congratulations and condemnations, broken relationships and new friends, attention and indifference take their turns to push us down and pull us up. Life is like a game of snakes and ladders. Sometimes we get bitten by a snake and at other times get a ladder to climb. Whatever may happen we must keep moving towards the goal.

Talk to anyone and he’ll tell you how his life is following the harrowing ECG pattern. If you pull back the facade in every admired personality you will find moments of deep depression. It is scary when you go down the lowest low and you quickly conclude “It is finished.” The human mind is specialist in focussing on the downs, ignoring the ups. The problems of children, parents, neighbours, in-laws, friends, spouse, finance, sickness all toss us about like tornadoes. But God blesses us with good times too. That’s why we sing, “Count your blessings.” “He who can’t endure the bad, will not live to see the good” says an Yiddish proverb. Jesus set the joy of eternity before Him so every trial would seem like a mosquito bite. That’s what Christmas is all about.

Take a foolscap paper, paint a small dot in the centre and show it to a friend. Ask her what she sees. She will most certainly reply, “A dot.” No one will ever mention the large white space around the dot. That’s we. Christmas is the time to see the large white space in our lives and close our eyes to the dot.

I read in a Guideposts magazine about Gail Gorumba who had lost her husband, her father and son, all in one year. Yet she was the one comforting her family. Giuliani asked her how she could get through so much tragedy with such remarkable poise. “Whenever terrible things happen” she said, “I focus on the good things life gives you. So now, I’m thinking about my daughter’s wedding.”

Rudy Giuliani, New York’s mayor during 11 September 2001 says, “The idea that in the worst times of life, you have to take full advantage of the beautiful things that come along—I think that’s what living is all about.”

“Life isn’t always ideal or romantic. It’s a series of triumphs and disappointments and that’s okay” says Adrian Grenier, star of the HBO series “Eutourage” whose father dropped out of his life when he was just five.

May be your life is full of ugly black dots. But when you finally connect the dots a beautiful picture will emerge. That’s a fun-game God plays with us. If you get to see the big picture it’s a Christmas.

Worrying is like a rocking chair. It gives you something to do but takes you nowhere. So stop running about like a headless chicken and enjoy the blessings of life.

I watched my 2 year old grand daughter as she licked her ice-cream dripping all over her with a gleeful grin. Then she got down from her perch, tripped, fell down and screamed. I thought within myself, “That’s life—ice-creams and screams.” That’s Christmas too!

If you focus on the good things of life your mind will light up like a Christmas tree and your life itself will become another Christmas!

  Address for Correspondence Contributions

Dr. Lilian Stanley
13 Church Colony
Vellore 632006, India
 +91 9843511943
  lilianstanley@gmail.com

Blessing Youth Mission

Blessing Youth Mission
13 Church Colony
Vellore 632006, India
 +91-416-2242943, +91-416-2248943
  hq@bymonline.org
  www.bymonline.org

For Donation & Contributions...

Home & NRE donors

Name: Blessing Youth Mission
Account Type: Current Account
A/c No.: 37268642054
Bank: State Bank of India
Branch: Siruthozhil,Vellore - 632 006
IFSC No.: SBIN0007274

Gulf Donors

A/c Name: T.Dickson Daniel Moses
Account Type: Saving Account
A/c No.: 35374362080
Bank: State Bank of India
Branch: Siruthozhil,Vellore - 632 006
IFSF: SBIN0007274

Click here for more options

  Blessing Literature Centre

To buy books written by Dr. Lilian Stanley, kindly reach to us in the follwing address

Blessing Literature Centre
21/11 West Coovam River Road,
Chintadripet,
Chennai 600 002, India.
 +91-44-28450411, Mob:8806270699
  blc@bymonline.org