Posted on 12/16/2014 4:11:27 PM PST by Salvation
Happy Hanukkah!--festival of lights, feast of dedication.
We met in Saudi Arabia, both working for the Arabian American Oil Company, Aramco, one of the largest petroleum companies on this planet.. Her husband was a big shot in Chevron and my husband was a mechanical engineer, working in the natural gas industry for ARAMCO.
Life wasn't so easy, mentally and emotionally, since we were so cut off from the rest of the world. It's better now there as the Internet gives instant and constant contact wit home, family and friends. We had all the money and luxuries in the world. But, WITH ALL THAT MONEY, I discovered the TRUTH of how UNimportant money is compared to GOD, family and friends.
The Saudis provided us with U.S./British men-of-the-cloth and it was due to my SAUDI BOSS that I started attending DAILY Mass. But, that's another story.
People tend to bond fast and long when they become friends in less-than-easy/nice circumstances. And we did.
I think your tagline is lovely, too! Imagine, Jesus Himself, so tiny and inconspicuous, growing in His Mother's womb!
(O Mary, He whom the whole Universe cannot contain, enclosed Himself in your womb and was made man.)
It made me think of those who could not make room for an expectant Mother and her gentle, kind husband. Here the past meets the future: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do..."
What did their senses see? Perhaps the Holy Family passed unnoticed... What of the woman Abigail, the innkeeper's wife, who took pity on the poor couple and the Unborn Child? What grace of God filled her heart?
Imagine a cold night with a strange star in the skies, and a joyous message from Heaven itself! The shepherds knew poverty, yet wondered what could be so different about this tiny Child, and His parents that the angels themselves rejoiced at His coming?
And what of the Kings, so wealthy and powerful, yet so humbled in the face of this Child! Gentile, perhaps pagan; yet God chose them through their own beliefs, to find Him; He Who is the way, the truth, and the Life!
That one Child, Who began in impossible circumstances, according to the world, was the whole Purpose for God's creation of the universe! Yes, He Who created the universe and holds it in order by His will alone, chose to become that Child for our sake!
May we see Him with the eyes of Faith in the poor, the sick, the grieving. Let us pray for the wisdom to see Him! Let us praise His Mother and adoptive Father for their humility, and cooperation with God's Grace!
And may we see Him in the unborn, and the marginalized: give us, Lord, the grace to see you in all forms of humanity!
Thank you again, and God bless you, for giving us a lot to think about!
Together, let us thank God for those whom He gave the grace to bring you back! What a joyous thing, and an example of God's love of us and the life He breathed into is! God bless you! Glad you're here!!!
Happy Birthday, dear Jesus!
Merry Christmas!
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