Leaves, Bud, Flowers and Fruits !

Anna and I get up each day during this season,  to watch the delightful sights of colourful leaves, buds in the rose bushes, flowers in the plants and fruits in the trees. This is an additional feature of the winter season in our garden. 

With only a couple days for the Christmas day of the year,  this abundance in nature adds a refreshing touch to the thoughts of Christmas. 

The resident and visiting birds add to the natural setting of a garden. That brings a cohesive feeling about the integration between the environment and life that it sustains. 

How our lives are sustained in an environment which adds wellness to our life! The air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we receive from the earth and the shelter our homes provides us together constitute an environment that is life-friendly. 

When we look at the star hanging in our courtyard, we remember the narration in the gospels of Matthew and Luke in the New Testament of the Bible, about wise men journeying to Bethlehem, guided by a star,  travelling over 1000 or more kilometres over a few months to reach Bethlehem to visit Jesus. 

That was both a physical and inner journey. 

For us this journey to receive the joy, peace and hope of Christmas is also an inner journey. That journey happens amidst the mundane experiences of each day. 

We were attacked two days back by giant wild honey bees, flying in from the bee hive in the adjacent property, following which our domestic helper is still in the hospital. Daffny, Anna and I are still recovering from multiple stings we suffered. It happened without any provocation from us. 

Life is such an experience of unexpected events. Amidst all of this, we still have an orientation, as the star of Bethlehem invites us to continue the inner journey to find the peace that is essentially a gift deep within amidst the turbulences outside. 

The prince of Peace as Jesus of Nazareth is often referred to, is indeed the gift that most of us seek after!

The two Bulbuls in our garden, with a content look after their feed summaries the story of Christmas in a miniature way! 

It was Jesus of Nazareth who said in His sermon on the Mount, 'Look at the birds of the air, that they nod not sow, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns, and yet your Heavenly Father feed them. Are you not worth much more than they?' (Matt6; 26).

The is a sure hope and foundation for our pilgrim journey on earth. Although it is suffering and loss and not any immediate hope for people in the Palestinian Territories, and flor people in different parts of the world, we still can carry hope, that God is on the side of those who suffer.  The announcement of the glad tidings of the arrival of the prince of peace, who is also the  'suffering servant' reverberate in human hearts. 

So I return to the sights in our garden- leaves, bud, Flowers, fruits, birds and all that make our environment. They announce life in all their  fullness!

The Christmas season reminds us of the fullness of time, when Jesus was born! 

God shall appear in ways that humans can perceive again and again, with healing and comfort in the fullness of time! 

Until then, all of us who remember the first Christmas, can give ourselves for peace making among the circle of our contacts and for alleviating suffering in our neighbourhood!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)