Christmas!

Hey hey!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! I know that its a little late, but better late than never.
I'm taking a prolonged break from writing. I've hit a short wall.
Anyway, its a little funny that we say Merry Christmas to each other. After all, we don't go around saying "Happy Birthday Sook Ning" to everyone else when it's my birthday. You say it to the person whose birthday you are celebrating.
So why do we say Merry Christmas to each other? I guess its..a way of to commemorate the birthday of a VVIP. But we don't say "Happy Birthday Her Majesty" to everyone either.
I think there's something more than that. I mean, it's a tradition..that may not mean anything, but allow me to hypothesize. :)

I think it's because when Christ was born on earth, it's basically a celebration for everyone. This was the start of what sealed the new covenant - that brings life to everyone. Christ said "I am the bread of life". As you read that passage, it sounds kinda weird. Bread of life..eat and you will have eternal life. It says that it was a hard teaching.
But in Isaiah, there's a passage that the NIV labels "invitation to the thirsty".
It's an invitation to all to come and have eternal life (basically..I'm giving away the story. :) )
But think about it - we all need food to eat. It is a necessity. But we eat, and then we get hungry. Then we eat again, and we get hungry again.
And for some reason, I keep noticing/realizing how much people want to be loved. Its like this insatiable drive. So we meet new people, we are loved. and then sometimes, people move away, and we want to be loved again, so we meet more people. OR even if that one person in your life stays, we still want to be loved by others. It's an insatiable crazy hunger to be loved and accepted.
So then I think, God is the only one that can satisfy that hunger. Because His is the only perfect unconditional love. It's everlasting, neverending, faithful love.
And isn't it amazing then..that the need, the drive we have to be loved can be fulfilled by Him? We can be satisfied. We won't need to look around for other people to love us. We won't need to keep searching for that one person.
Note that I said "we can be satisfied". Sometimes, we know Him, but we are still not satisfied. This is a great mystery. It's not because He can't satisfy, but its that we still crave human acceptance.
So imagine eating this loaf of bread, that makes you super duper full. And you are satiated. You see a roti canai, and you want that roti canai too!
I'm not sure this analogy is going the right way. haha.
But basically, when we believe that Jesus is the Son of God, who came down on earth, redeemed us from sin by dying on the cross and resurrected on the 3rd day and we now have life in Him, we will never hunger again.
We will never be alone again. You may feel lonely, but you are not alone.
You may feel like you want that roti canai, but you are not hungry.
You may feel like you want the whole world to love you, but you have the love of God - that is wider, deeper, longer, higher, stronger, faithfuller, purer than anything else in the world.
If only we realize that the kingdom of Heaven is that priceless pearl, we would sell everything we have to have that pearl. Perhaps if we realized that all the riches of God, all the grace of God is ours..we will finally allow ourselves to be satisfied.

So Merry Christmas - Christ was born about 2000 years ago. Life is ours.