Not Your Usual Christmas Wish
Bah, humbug!
It’s been a year… difficult, challenging, complex…
I wish I felt merry, happy, whatever all things Christmas is to mean. I don’t.
Instead, I’m wrestling with too many issues of modern life, modern medicine, and health.
Is genetic testing ethical? Does the ethics depend on the motive? Should the results be blasted to anyone who can be traced to some strands of the DNA?
This then calls for more questions. What if? What if the information is misused? What if the tested cannot get a job because of the results? What if the tested is never allowed to have a child because of the results? What if the tested and all their living ancestors and progeny are wiped out as a result of the results at a distant point in the future by a modern Hitler?
Yep, the storms of life are rocking my mental boat. Waves of what-ifs wipe out any peace, winds of why rock my concentration.
God is gone, out to lunch, having a Christmas party. He doesn’t seem to care, and I really need Him to before I do a tantrum that would make a three-year giggle with glee.
Somehow, I don’t need the Babe in the manger. Oh, I need Him, but not as the Babe.
I need the strong, silent God-Man. It seems He’s sleeping on some cushions. Yet I know, I know He can, and at some point will, wake slightly, stand and stretch. Then He’ll look at what I call a storm and chide me on my lack of faith. He’ll walk out on the waves like a champion surfer, and He’ll command the winds of why and the waves of what-if, “Peace. Be still!”
My answers will crystallize. I will know what I need. Some measure of peace will descend.
Then I will find the courage, with the boat rocking and the wind howling, to take a leap of faith, to focus my eyes on the God-Man, and step out of the boat.
Merry Christmas! May you find the peace you need amid the storms of modern life.
Thanks to the Children’s Church crew for a most unusual Christmas message that triggered this one.
References: Matthew 14:22–33, Mark 4:35–40, John 6:16–21
