GOD'S PARENTHESES

 God 

(or the Great Mystery as the Lakota call Him) is wise.

Have you ever had a bruising day?

An event or events so traumatic that they drew blood both emotional or physical or both?

Of course you have. Me, too. Just today in fact (but that is besides the point).

But I was talking about terrible days. You have them. I have them.

 
God is wise. He gives us sleep. A terrible day has a night's sleep on either side like prarentheses.

Upon awakening, we feel a bit removed from the sharp sting of the trauma of the day before. 

And every passing night of sleep buffers the sting a bit more.  

 Sleep is God's gauze for the bleeding heart.


Sundays are like that too. 

God gave us a day of rest because he knew the human heart and human greed. 

He knew we would work ourselves and others to death if He didn't put the brakes on us in some way.

No farmer plants the same lot of ground over and over. It would leach all the nutrients out of it, leaving it lifeless. 

The farmer lets the lot lie fallow for a season.

And if dirt needs a rest, how much more does the human heart and mind.

 

Which brings us to God's gift of Christmas:
 

We all know of the straightforward gift of Christmas: 

Jesus coming here to save us from ourselves.

But I believe there was also the reason of the parentheses:

Christmas brackets one year from the next in a month of remembering the message of  

"Peace On Earth. Good Will To Man."

It brings to remembrance the innocence and dreams of childhood 

that the other eleven months have hammered out of us. We become childlike, in the best sense of the term, again.

We hold back bitter words a bit more. We help up a fellow man fallen by the wayside when we might not have another month. 

We remember those around us who hurt and think of ways to ease the pain.

 
New Year celebrations blow out the year. 

The month of Christmas heals a bit the wounds of the past year. 

I don't know about you, 

but I would rather heal 

than blow out.

The Great Mystery is wise and loving to give us the circle of seasons to be healed by Christmas, Sunday, and Sleep.

May the healing of this Christmas Season embrace you the rest of this month and into the New Year --  

Roland
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