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Long ago, there ruled in Persia a wise and good king. He loved his people. He wanted to know how they lived. He wanted to know about their hardships. Often he dressed in the clothes of a working man or a beggar, and went to the homes of the poor. No one whom he visited thought that he was their ruler.
One time he visited a very poor man who lived in a cellar. He ate the coarse food the poor man ate. He spoke cheerful, kind words to him. Then he left.
Later he visited the poor man again and disclosed his identity by saying, "I am your king!" The king thought the man would surely ask for some gift or favor, but he didn't. Instead he said, "You left your palace and your glory to visit me in this dark, dreary place. You ate the coarse food I ate. You brought gladness to my heart! To others you have given your rich gifts. To me you have given yourself!"
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This man teaches us a wonderful story of what Christmas is all about.
When Jesus decided to show how much He loved us, He did not decided to sent us too many gifts. This is just extra gifts. Instead He decided to give us the greatest of all gifts, the gift of His own self.
What is the difference between Christ and Santa Claus?
Santa Clause comes, gives us gifts and then he will leave.
Christ comes, not to give us extra gifts but offer us himself. And the most beautiful about that is He did not leave us. He decided to be the "Emmanuel" for all of us.
If you truly know how to love, you can understand that "PRESENCE" is the greatest gift that a person can yet give.
There is another story circulates on Qatar about what something happened on Dubai.
One day, their leader Sheikh Khalifa disguised as an ordinary man. He gets his Ferrari and drive it on a narrow way, but what he did is he drove his car too fast and at the end of the road there is a policeman and commanded him to stop because of over-speeding. While the police walk near to the car, he was shocked when he discover that it was the sheikh. The police did not know what to do, will he let the sheikh go or he will issue a ticket?
But he decide and said. "Your highness, you are over-speeding and your highness, much as I would not like to my duty tells me, I will give you a ticket"
After he gave the ticket, he told to himself, "Surely, tomorrow I will get fired but I don't care I just did what must suppose to do".
The next day, He has been brought to the palace.
And immediately the sheikh said, "I was looking for an honest and efficient policeman I have found one in you. You are promoted to a higher position".
And then the police answered,"Sir, the promotion that I would like and I have already received is that I have served my king".
The joy of this man is not that he gave a ticket to the king but he have serve the king by doing what his duty tells him to do.
Today, as we move forward to Christmas we must repeatedly tell to ourselves that may we desire every gifts that He might give but we must also not forget that as we desire the gifts we would not forget the giver of the gifts. That as we want the graces and the blessings, we would not forget the giver and the source of all of these.
My dear friends, True joy is in knowing that in your life you are obeying the will of the Lord.
Let Joseph be an example, he teaches us where true joy is to be found, in his obedience he permitted himself to be use as an instrument of God, so that God can be Emmanuel, God with us.
The greatest gift of Jesus is not for you to win the lottery, to give you a life that is too comfortable, the greatest gift that we celebrate in Christmas is that this our king, great and savior of all will be living with us.
Christ is Emmanuel, God is with us.
Christ is Jesus, the God who saves.
That is greatest reason of our celebration.
Hopefully on the day of His birth,truly we may say to ourselves,
"Christmas is happening to me, because Christ is with me"
May you have a Merry and Blessed Christmas,
Ash
(inspired by fr. Mar)
Today, as we move forward to Christmas we must repeatedly tell to ourselves that may we desire every gifts that He might give but we must also not forget that as we desire the gifts we would not forget the giver of the gifts. That as we want the graces and the blessings, we would not forget the giver and the source of all of these.
My dear friends, True joy is in knowing that in your life you are obeying the will of the Lord.
Let Joseph be an example, he teaches us where true joy is to be found, in his obedience he permitted himself to be use as an instrument of God, so that God can be Emmanuel, God with us.
The greatest gift of Jesus is not for you to win the lottery, to give you a life that is too comfortable, the greatest gift that we celebrate in Christmas is that this our king, great and savior of all will be living with us.
Christ is Emmanuel, God is with us.
Christ is Jesus, the God who saves.
That is greatest reason of our celebration.
Hopefully on the day of His birth,truly we may say to ourselves,
"Christmas is happening to me, because Christ is with me"
May you have a Merry and Blessed Christmas,
Ash
(inspired by fr. Mar)
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