There’s a beautiful song called Christmas in Heaven, where Scotty McCreery, the singer, wonders how a loved one who has passed away is celebrating Christmas. Scotty sings:
We’ve all lost loved ones, and the memories will always remain, but how are we going to remember the ones who died (and those who remain traumatised) due to the deep malaise that infects society. Rape is the sort of horror that cannot be put into words because words do not exist to describe what Aruna Shanbaug, Jyoti Singh, Asifa, Priyanka Reddy, the Unnao case survivor and countless others went through. As we prepare to welcome the new born Christ into our homes, let us first examine our hearts and find out where the sickness lies.
We live in a society, and the family is the basic building block of any society. The first seven years of life are the foundational stages, and this is where concepts and ideas get sown into the mind of a child. How does the father treat the mother and vice versa, what imagery and sensory data is the child receiving during the formative years? Anything sown in the fertile soil of childhood will manifest itself as life progresses. So, what are we teaching our children? Do we teach them to respect human beings irrespective of caste and gender?
A simple experiment, like riding any bus during the peak hours, for example the 29 C bus, will provide conclusive answers. Of course, with so many humans jam packed into a bus, there will be many good deeds too, and that’s how it should be. At the same time, there will be a lot of depravity too that goes unnoticed and that’s when the questions arise, as to what sort of parents could bring up perverts who find nothing wrong in violating personal boundaries and reveling in the trauma they induce. This is a normal occurrence in the life of any woman, being subjected to unwanted attention and abuse.
There are no words to even try to understand what the women, mentioned above, went through, no one ought to die such gruesome deaths. It’s ironic, that in a country like ours with innumerable goddesses and female deities, the female form is still subjugated and objectified, as the courts in the country spend years and taxpayers money, debating and allotting land to build places of worship to God, while trampling all over His divine spark that resides in every human soul. We’re all made in the image and likeness of God, yet we worship the invisible God who apparently resides in the confines of a building we humans built for Him. A place becomes holy when we come together for good as Jesus explains poignantly in Mathew, “For where two or three come together in my name, I am there with them” (18:20).
Change has to happen from within, we’ve to look inwards and create a better world to welcome the divine child whose only lesson was love. Love God and love your neighbours, Jesus made it simple (Mathew 22:37-39). Wishing everyone a Beautiful Christmas and a Blessed Year steeped in the love of Christ.
Are you kneeling with shepherds before Him now?
Can you reach out and touch His face?
Are you part of that glorious Holy Night?
I wonder what Christmas in Heaven is like.
We’ve all lost loved ones, and the memories will always remain, but how are we going to remember the ones who died (and those who remain traumatised) due to the deep malaise that infects society. Rape is the sort of horror that cannot be put into words because words do not exist to describe what Aruna Shanbaug, Jyoti Singh, Asifa, Priyanka Reddy, the Unnao case survivor and countless others went through. As we prepare to welcome the new born Christ into our homes, let us first examine our hearts and find out where the sickness lies.
We live in a society, and the family is the basic building block of any society. The first seven years of life are the foundational stages, and this is where concepts and ideas get sown into the mind of a child. How does the father treat the mother and vice versa, what imagery and sensory data is the child receiving during the formative years? Anything sown in the fertile soil of childhood will manifest itself as life progresses. So, what are we teaching our children? Do we teach them to respect human beings irrespective of caste and gender?
A simple experiment, like riding any bus during the peak hours, for example the 29 C bus, will provide conclusive answers. Of course, with so many humans jam packed into a bus, there will be many good deeds too, and that’s how it should be. At the same time, there will be a lot of depravity too that goes unnoticed and that’s when the questions arise, as to what sort of parents could bring up perverts who find nothing wrong in violating personal boundaries and reveling in the trauma they induce. This is a normal occurrence in the life of any woman, being subjected to unwanted attention and abuse.
There are no words to even try to understand what the women, mentioned above, went through, no one ought to die such gruesome deaths. It’s ironic, that in a country like ours with innumerable goddesses and female deities, the female form is still subjugated and objectified, as the courts in the country spend years and taxpayers money, debating and allotting land to build places of worship to God, while trampling all over His divine spark that resides in every human soul. We’re all made in the image and likeness of God, yet we worship the invisible God who apparently resides in the confines of a building we humans built for Him. A place becomes holy when we come together for good as Jesus explains poignantly in Mathew, “For where two or three come together in my name, I am there with them” (18:20).
Change has to happen from within, we’ve to look inwards and create a better world to welcome the divine child whose only lesson was love. Love God and love your neighbours, Jesus made it simple (Mathew 22:37-39). Wishing everyone a Beautiful Christmas and a Blessed Year steeped in the love of Christ.
Comments