Blog 1893 – 11.30.2020

On the Day You Were Born

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LIcGJnztuJYALy2wGFP-x-ul7TISBpTQ/view?usp=drivesdk

On the Day You Were Born

Much is made of the day that the baby Jesus was born although no one really knows the exact day and the closest anyone can come is that it was during a special tax season when all were called upon to return to the city of their ancestors, to pay their particular tax. Therefore April 15th is as good a guess as December 25th on when Jesus’ birthday really is.

According to the story it had been prophesied that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem and so his parents had to relocate from their home town of Nazareth briefly to be registered for the census, pay their taxes, and have the baby there. There was even a short detour afterwards to Egypt in one account to fulfill another Old Testament prophecy about the Son of God being called out of Egypt. Non-believers find many if not all of these supposedly fulfilled prophecies, all written many years after the fact, more than a bit strained.

I believe that all births are holy and divine and that each of us is a gift from the Universe to a world that often fails to notice the importance of our advent. What we accomplish during our visit or visits, brief or long to earth, is not so much a matter of prophecies fulfilled as it is dreams and desires willed. We all are, I believe, as the poem says, “The captains of our fate, the masters of all we survey.”

On the day we were born our immediate family may have had some of their own expectations for us, but it is we ourselves who begin deciding almost immediately what roads we will choose and others refuse. Much as we may prepare or plan, our lives are mostly improvisations directed by a few important choices at certain moments in our lives.

I do not believe that this life is a trial so much as it is an opportunity for us to explore all the possibilities. I have quoted a friend often who likes to say, “Thoughts become things, choose the best ones.” I believe with him that we literally create the world around us by the thoughts we dwell most upon. Don’t like what you see? Change it, change your mind. Think about what you want, not what you don’t want.

One of the shortest books in the Old Testament cannon (the books chosen by vote to be included) was picked last as a matter of fact because it failed to meet one of the selection criteria, not having God’s name mentioned in it. In the Book of Esther, Mordecai, the Jew says to the lovely young girl Esther: “What think you that your were not born into the kingdom for such a time as this.” Esther goes on to seize the opportunity of a lifetime to make a difference in the life of her people and her world.

On the day that we were born there were undoubtedly some heavy bets placed that you and I would make a difference too. Our life stories are not completely written yet and surprise endings are still therefore possible.

Your friend and fellow traveler,

David White

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qGO9QveRkFVlNJW9JgLVfX1CB5_lKqNS/view?usp=drivesdk

Because You Loved Me