Wednesday, 16 December 2009

On the threshold of Christmas: taking the strain and bearing the pain

taking the strain at Christmas

Looking up at the Humber bridge from below the shape reminded me of the cross. As I contemplated the enormous stresses and loads which the bridge was bearing the thought of God perpetually taking the strain of the world’s suffering and sadness was suddenly very vivid. Holding creation in being, holding each and every one of us in love, is surely a vulnerable, costly business. Why? Because God is not detached from the horrors and hatreds which bedevil the world, nor indifferent to the agonies and angst of our lives. Christmas reminds us that the very opposite is true: the birth of Jesus shows us how God takes all of these things into divinity and bears and endures them with us in love.

1 comment:

  1. Thank you for reminding me just now how great is GOD's capacity to feel. Sometimes i forget because i see GOD's almighty power and infinite love and magnificence, and forget that as JESUS, He knows all the emotions and hurts we all go through; and when i try to imagine the billions of hurting humanity that He in His omniscience can empathize, i realize (in a very limited way from this finite mind) what burden He carries, like this bridge span in your photoe.

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