The lunar halo,
Symbolizes divine life,
The light of the world.
Life tests aren't meant to expose our weaknesses, but to reveal our strengths.
Emerging from one of life's "crucible moments" doesn't mean we are healed, but we will be different, and that's OK.
A lunar halo in the night sky is life's way of
acknowledging this and giving us a beautiful sign as we journey on.
After giving this some thought, it occurred to me that our
lives are replete with images of left and right, including all symmetric
objects like our very own bodies! Our
politics involve left progressives and right conservatives. And then there are the centrists that
attempt to walk the middle line and work diligently to find that middle ground
of compromise that can help everyone move ahead without a stalemate. I wondered if there was something to be
learned about Jesus not crucified alone, but with human beings also
crucified to his left and right that Holy Friday.
It's been noted that the gospels infer
that Barabbas may have been a freedom fighter or revolutionary
against the oppressive Roman occupiers.
He was scheduled to be crucified on this day along with the other two, but
the crowd chose Jesus. It’s been said
that "One person's freedom fighter is someone else's terrorist". It just may be that these two men whom church
legend names Gestas and Dismas were captured with Barabbas while they were
fighting against the oppressing Roman army and tried as enemies of Rome.
Having the two condemned men on either side of
Jesus enabled a final dialog among the three of them while they were still capable
of speaking. Gestas mocks Jesus asking
him to save them if he is the Son of God, while Dismas asks Jesus to accept him
into his kingdom. Jesus replies that he
will be with him in paradise that day. Soon
all three men on the left, center and right had succumbed to respiratory and heart
failure.
As I was driving home, I entered a major
intersection with four lanes. The Way
included a left turn lane, two center lanes and a right turn lane. I had the choice of wandering off left and
right or continuing on in either of the two center lanes. So, I decided to
continue my life’s journey along the center path to paradise.
Peace is but a single word,
but when it is spread throughout the entire world and embraced, it becomes a
resilient force against war.
The United Nations countries along with all the world’s religions and their people need to rally together in the year 2022 and demand a nuclear country ceases an unprovoked war. This war is resulting in the horrific deaths of innocent citizens of all ages and reducing their homes to rubble. This assault isn’t just on one independent country, we need to wake up and realize it is jeopardizing the entire planet. What hope for world peace is there for humanity if this continues?
Unstable
countries now possess the technology and equipment to start a nuclear holocaust
that can destroy all life on this planet.
If you by chance were an advanced alien race that had been monitoring
our development for millennia, would you stand by and let it happen or would
you intervene? Edgar Mitchell was a NASA
astronaut who walked on the moon on the Apollo 14 mission in 1971. Before dying, he told the British newspaper
Mirror that they had intervened during the Cold War to prevent a nuclear
war. If true, we’re in need of another other-worldly
intervention by either another race or ultimately our Creator.
A
rogue nation of ruthless leaders that neither values the lives of others or
even their own people can now either cause the unification or annellation of
humanity.
Just another day in senior paradise...
We entered the garden of Gethsemane near the end of our pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 2015 about this time of the year. The walk through the ageless olive trees was surreal. Our guide remarked that some of these trees were alive 2,000 years ago when Jesus prayed here on many occasions while visiting Jerusalem with his disciples. Earlier in the week we had visited a woodworking facility that fashioned Christian figures from the olive branches that were trimmed out of these same trees in the area. The olive tree resurrects itself through its root system.
After passing over this very sacred ground we entered the
Basilica of the Agony, a Roman Catholic church located on the Mount of Olives which
is also known as The Church of All Nations.
I had an image of Jesus praying for God to take the cup from him,
knowing the dreadful fate that awaited him.
But he also paused in agony and prayed,
“Yet not as I will, but as you will.”
I had observed the classic painting of Jesus kneeling beside
a huge boulder in the area and praying this prayer in Gethsemane among the
olive trees. But when we entered the dimly
lit church, all I could make out in the dark was a huge slab of rock on the
floor surrounded by other pilgrims kneeling around it and silently praying and
meditating close to where Jesus had spent that fateful night. I too knelt there in silent awe.
Max Lucado, a prolific Christian writer, recently wrote about the classic image of Jesus in “a snow-white robe. Hands peacefully folded in prayer. A look of serenity on his face. Halo over his head. A spotlight from heaven illuminating his golden-brown hair.” Lucado wonders if this artist had ever read the gospels? I now consider the setting as a time in prayer before Black Friday and not an image to use when discussing Black Friday.. He notes that Matthew records Jesus’ demeaner as sorrowful and troubled. He says, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death.” He fell with his face to the ground and prayed. Luke observed that his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground, indicating extreme stress.
Lucado writes that “Jesus is in pain. Jesus is on the stage of fear. Jesus is cloaked, not in sainthood, but in
humanity.” Jesus knows the pain and fear
that we humans experience as we move about on this foggy planet. He relates and he experienced the worst of
the worst for our sake. Lucado concludes
“It could very well be that the hand that extends itself to lead you out of the
fog is a pierced one.”
A pierced hand that Jesus shows his amazed disciples
after his Easter resurrection, confirming that “the worst thing is never the last thing!”
But then as life moved along, the pace definitely picked
up. Early adulthood had real serious
studies, full-time jobs, marriages, children and travel without even a
consideration that life hours were being consumed at such a furious pace. And all the while, parents were aging,
grandparents were dying, children were becoming young adults and we began to
experience wear and tear on our bodies.
All of a sudden, the words of golfer Lee Trevino resonated; “The body
can no longer cash the checks the mind writes!”
Suddenly, we began to experience the passing of some of our
peers from schools we had attended and parents began to pass without anyone to
hold their hand and say a prayer together.
Grandchildren appeared to soften the losses and retirement presented a
respite from the merry-go-round of life as it slowed and allowed us to step off
and reflect.
That reflection time finally gives us pause to look in the
rearview mirror and dimly see that life has happened all the while we were
engaged in the daily battle of home mortgages, business travel, soccer games, school
events, constantly foraging for food, keeping the yard and vehicles maintained,
hours being consumed by television and social media apps, and a myriad of other
time absorbing black holes. All the
while the circle of life continued its relentless pace as the earth circled
around the sun and nature soldiered on whether or not we chose to go along and
enjoy the ride. Understanding that we were not created to simply exist, but to live life to the fullest.
And if we’re fortunate enough to still be breathing by this
time, perhaps we can finally look back—not on the days, but on the significant moments
of our life and smile.
