CJ's World

Especially this time of year, projections of  happy, marvelous relationship with friends and family abound, conflicting with the reality many of us are living. Our family trees are complicated, messy, the bonds seemingly unresolvable.

Pondering these incongruities, I read about the heritage and life of Jesus. His family tree includes: foreign women, non-Jewish women, public sinners, women of “easy virtue,” all ordinary humans living in a suffering world.

We are given an example of living with and loving people from all imaginable human conditions, those who are open to receiving His message of peace, love and forgiveness.

Jesus offers hope to needy people like us, living in our complicated world. From this hope, we gain strength – strength to pass through trials and darkness, coming out the other side. May this hope encourage you as you negotiate complicated relationships. And know this, you are not alone.

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Daily Meditations for Advent (Richard Rohr, 2008)