Mary's Dream

Mary’s Dream
I had a dream, Joseph. I don’t understand it, not really, but I think it was about a birthday celebration for our Son. I think that was what it was all about. The people had been preparing for it for about six weeks. They had decorated the house and bought new clothes. They’d gone shopping many times and bought elaborate gifts. It was peculiar, though, because the presents were not for our Son. They wrapped them in beautiful paper and tied them with lovely bows and stacked them under a tree. Yes, a tree, Joseph, right in their house. They’d decorated the tree also. The branches were full of glowing balls and sparkling ornaments. There was a figure at the top of the tree. It looked like an angel might look. Oh! It was beautiful. Everyone was laughing and happy. They were all excited about the gifts. They gave the gifts to each other, Joseph, not to our Son. I don’t think they even knew him. They never mentioned his name. Doesn’t it seem odd for people to go to all that trouble to celebrate someone’s birthday if they don’t know Him. I had the strangest feeling that if our Son had gone to this celebration He would have been intruding. Everything was so beautiful, Joseph, and everyone was so happy, but it made me want to cry. How sad for Jesus – not to be wanted at His own birthday party. I’m glad it was only a dream. How terrible, Joseph, it if had been real!

Author unknown.

Marriage

"When two people are under the influence of the most violent, most insane, most delusive, and most transient of passions, they are required to swear that they will remain that excited, abnormal, and eshausting condition continuously until death do them part."
- Irish playwright, George Bernard Shaw

Beginning again

"When God created us, God gave Adam a secret and that secret was not to begin, but him to begn again. In other words, it is not given to us to begin; that privilege is God's alone. But it is given to us to begin again - and we do everything we choose to defy death and side with the living." - Elie Wiesel

Inner voice

"We would be wise to listen intentionally to the voice of our own lives and to discern what our very soul is saying to us in the depths of our being, there where truth abides. As we listen to ourselves, we can become ourselves." - Parker Palmer

Failure and success

Baskeball star, Michael Jordan once said, "I've missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I've lost more than 300 games, and 26 times 've been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. Throughout my life and career I've failed, and failed, and failed again. And that's why I succeed."

Easter hope

What gives a widow hope as she stands by the grave of her husband? What gives a war-torn amputee hope as he lay in a hospital bed? What gives parents hope who have just lost a child in childbirth? What helps parents when they find out that their kidnapped child was found murdered? The answer to all the above questions is the same - hope, Easter hope. Vaclav Havel said, "hope is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out."

Food for Thought

One of my favorite authors is Paula Coelho. "The Alchemist" tells the story of a shepherd boy who goes in search for a treasure. Along the way, he encounters various obstacles. Eventually, he discovers that the treasure is within himself. One of Coelho's other books, "Veronica decides to die.," tells the story of Veronica who searches for meaning in a culture that is based on secularity, routine and conformity. "The Devil and Miss Prym" reflects a village's struggle between good and evil when a stranger enters the village and challenges their sense of right and wrong. In that particular book, he shares some insightful quotes. One is, "God's hell is His love for humanity, because human behavior makes every second of His eternal life a torment." Later in the book, he says, "Man needs what's worst in him in order to achieve what's best in him."
I wonder how we can tease out the above quotes and see their implications!