“Christmas is the perfect time to shout out with all joy.”
Stand up!
Look into heaven!
See your Redeemer lives!
These commands and words of power recently came to me at the end of a complex dream. I wondered if perhaps the sharing of these words might be more appropriate for Easter, after all Easter is when we usually celebrate the resurrection of our Lord — our Redeemer. But after a bit of a think I realized that what we actually remember at Christmas both opens and closes the Apostle John's gospel (condensed from the Jewish New Testament John 1:1-17; 20:27-29; all bolding mine) —
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. All things came to be through him, and without him nothing made had being. In him was life, and the life was the light of mankind . . . . The Word became a human being and lived with us, and we saw his Sh'khinah [God's manifest presence], the Sh'khinah of the Father's only Son, full of grace and truth . . . . We have all received from his fullness, yes, grace upon grace. For the Torah was given through Moshe; grace and truth came through Yeshua the Messiah.~
Then he said to T'oma, "Put your finger here, look at my hands, take your hand and put it into my side. Don't be lacking in trust, but have trust!" T'oma answered him, "My Lord and my God!" Yeshua said to him, "Have you trusted because you have seen me? How blessed are those who do not see, but trust anyway!"
On my dear-heart Mum's birthday, I remember her whole life on earth, including her death, as well as her being alive in that unknown country where I will join her one-day. Christmas is when we, who "are those who do not see, but trust anyway", remember that He who "was with God in the beginning" "became a human being and lived with us", died, was resurrected and ascended alive into that unknown country where we will join Him one-day.
Yes, Christmas is the perfect time to shout out with all joy -
Madelaine is a wonderful friend and writer presently living in Toronto.