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Emmanuel, For Real
During Advent, members of the A Nun’s Life community will be posting reflections on the Jesse Tree and the O Antiphons.
Day 19 :: O Emmanuel written by Marla
A three year old boy has kept me from sleeping all week. He isn’t any trouble, don’t get me wrong. He isn’t a loud child I hear through the walls, and he isn’t a neighbor running over to torture my dogs. I don’t even know this boy.
But this particular male child might not live until Christmas, and that has been keeping me awake. On Monday, this tiny boy and his 4 year old brother were beaten with a belt–one of many beatings in their short lives, it seems. The four year old was dead before he reached medical help; the three year old is in the ICU.
Lying awake, I wondered, should I pray for this child to recover? Would he be better off going to God and not having to live with the scars of his abuse? I wasn’t prepared to pray for those who hurt these children and I felt immense guilt about that. My uncertainty about how to pray stifled me altogether. No words would come.
I thought about Emmanuel, God With Us. Throughout scripture we are urged to call, that God will answer, and to seek, for God will appear. We are told to “come to the water.” But sometimes we might be too tired, too despondent, or too fearful to go looking for God.
Thankfully, about 2000 years ago, the omnipotent, omnipresent being in the sky with the power to create and destroy life came to earth in the form of Jesus in order to be more fully with us. And we don’t have to do anything for God to get there, except know.
GOD IS WITH US.
Now.
Here.
God is with me as I struggle to find words to pray. God is with my friend who is drowning in grief at the loss of her son. And God is in the ICU with this three year old boy whose world has fallen apart.
Michael Card sings (according to scripture): “For all those who live in the shadow of death a glorious light has dawned. For all those who stumble in the darkness, behold! Your Light has come!”
The Internet has been ablaze with comments on this video of Linus telling Charlie Brown the meaning of Christmas (I found it courtesy of Fr. James Martin). At some point in his story, Linus drops his security blanket. God is with him, and that is enough.
God is not in some distant place, looking down on us. God is with us!
Is it any wonder we are called to rejoice?
* * Want to revisit the other symbols of Advent? Click here on Jesse Tree. * *
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{ 2 comments }
Beautiful, Marla. We live in such a paradox – so much wonder and goodness; so much pain and suffering. I love that you did not try to solve the paradox – because that is to lessen its power. God is with us. But he doesn’t fix everything. And neither can we. But he is with us, in it. How strange is that?
Thanks for the lovely music and images – and for dear Linus and his blanket. Note that he does put it down while he proclaims the truth that is in him. But then he picks it up and takes it with him when he leaves the stage. To me that says a lot.
Marla, you are one powerful writer. Thank you!