An Advent Journey through my least favourite Christmas carol (part 3).
If you would like to listen instead of read, then follow the link:
Friedrich Nietzsche is often quoted as saying “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.”
After a little digging, I discovered that he actually said:
“Out of life’s school of war—what doesn’t kill me, makes me stronger.”
Friedrich Nietzsche
Out of life’s school of war…
Life can be tough sometimes.
We feel battered and bruised by challenging circumstances and situations beyond our control.
I’ve lost count of the amount of people who have said to me, “I can’t wait for 2023 to be over.”
I hate to be the bearer of bad tidings, but there’s no guarantee 2024 will be a walk in the park!
It’s strange how times of celebration, like Christmas, can touch raw nerves and resurface the situations that didn’t kill us, but certainly made us dig deep into our resilience reserves.
I’m determined not to write another grief blog but I’m sure I’m not the only one missing someone this Christmas. Your raw nerve might be different to mine. It could be a fractured relationship, a health scare, an unresolved conflict, or any situation that surfaces amid the joys of Christmas, bringing with it more than a hint of sadness.
Why such a depressing blog this week, Kay?
For heaven’s sake, it’s Christmas!
Have a mince pie and cheer up love!
I don’t mean to be down in the dumps, but yet again I lay the blame at the feet of the three kings and their gift-giving ways.
11 On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshipped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.
(Matthew 2:11)
This week it’s all about the gift of frankincense.
Known as the perfume capital of Arabia, the Wadi Dawkah desert valley is home to thousands of Frankincense trees. Often passed down through generations of the same family these trees are precious commodities and have produced valuable incense for thousands of years. To obtain the frankincense resin, the harvester cuts into the bark of the tree causing a milky fluid to rise to the surface. With little fragrance or value, this fluid is left to harden until the harvester returns ten days later. The resin is removed and discarded and again, the bark of the tree is scraped away. It is only after another period of patient waiting that the harvester returns to collect what is now a hardened yellow resin. Only at this point is the fragrance strong and the frankincense shows its true worth.
We don’t like to revisit old wounds, do we?
As a nation, we can be a little “stiff upper lip” about things in our past that have caused us pain.
Maybe it’s okay to consider the times when we have been wounded and instead of suppressing how we feel, search for the gift within it.
Maybe there’s something positive in taking time to consider the moments that scraped the surface of our souls so that God can heal us.
Maybe if we give ourselves time to sit with these uncomfortable emotions then our lives will be filled with a more intense fragrance of God’s presence.
Instead of turning to the wise words of Nietzsche, perhaps we can turn to this precious gift from the wise men.
“The gift of frankincense given to Jesus symbolised his holiness, his purity, his willingness to freely and wholly gift himself as a burnt offering. Just as frankincense is gathered by cutting the bark of the tree, the Lord was broken upon a tree – the cross – that we might share in this gift.”
Author Unknown
This year, I’ve promised myself that if there’s a moment where the pain of loss cuts through the celebrations of Christmas, then instead of suppressing it, I’ll let it rise to the surface.
Let’s give ourselves the space to notice the fragrance of Jesus in those moments and recognise he experienced all the joy and pain of human life when he came to earth as a tiny baby.
Frankincense to offer have I
Incense owns a Deity nigh
Prayer and praising
All men raisingWorship Him, God most high
John Henry Hopkins, Jnr.
Kay Moorby
Thank you Kay your words are informing and blessing.