The 2nd Sunday of Christmas: Ephesians 1:3-14; John 1:10-18
Podcast Message: Power To Be
Notes: The photo was take in 1998, Sofia with my parents and sister in law.
January 2, 2022
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Hello, This is Jade.
Welcome to Yi.kigai
A space for all to explore the intersection between faith and daily life
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Merry Christmas. It is the 2nd Sunday of Christmas.
And Happy New Year to you.
Were you able to stay awake to count down on New Year’s Eve to welcome 2022? It is getting harder for me to stay up late and keep my spirit high as I get older, and I have no willpower at all to do that either. Talking about willpower, the evangelist John said that Jesus gave us power to become children of God. It means that we are entitled and authorized to be children of God. But how and why?
I still remember how confused I was when my daughter, Sofia, could not remember me after we were apart for half a year. She was only two years old when I had to leave for Taiwan to deal with a family emergency. At the same time, my husband received a new assignment to be a mission developer in Chicago. Since neither of us had the bandwidth for childcare in our new situations, Sofia had to stay with my parents-in-law in Mexico. I still remember the moment when I saw her walking out the gate in O’Hare International Airport, holding my mother-in-law’s hand. We waved to both of them excitedly and expected her to come to us, but regrettably she didn’t.
In John 1:11, it says that Jesus came to his own people but they didn’t accept him. They couldn’t recognize him or notice his existence. Have you ever felt confused when someone you know well can’t recognize you? Perhaps it’s because of memory loss, lacking or losing contact for a long period of time, aging, or being too young to remember like my daughter’s case. That was back in 1998 when video chat wasn’t available yet.
How about the time of oral tradition when the people of God stopped passing their faith onto the next generations mentioned in Judges 2:10? It must have been even harder to keep their relationship with God. The younger generations did not even know that God delivered their ancestors out of slavery. Maybe that was why the Psalmist said in Psalm 145:4 as a reminder that one generation shall praise God’s works to another, and shall declare God’s mighty acts.
How frightening it is to be forgotten, especially by loved ones? If we would do anything to prevent such a heartbreaking experience, why would we allow this to happen to anyone, including God? Jesus said in Luke 6:31-32: "Treat others the same way you want them to treat you. If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them.” God does not want to either forget or forsake anyone in this world. Not only did God keep pursuing His relationship with us, but also forgave our cold shoulder or even rejection. Jesus certainly could testify to it.
After spending several days together, my heart melted when my daughter reached out to me and asked me to hold her. That was an unforgettable, joyful moment. My parents-in-law and sister-in-law did try to remind her who her parents were by showing our photos to her regularly. She was just too young to remember. The bond between us grew back little by little. She believed what we told her and accepted us.
Out of love, Jesus did not give up the relationship God had established long ago through the people of Israel. He gives us the right and the power to be children of God as long as we believe and accept Him as our savior. It is my prayer that we all may take time to remember and to nurture our relationship with God regularly, to claim and to own that power. It is a gift from God.
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May your coming week be blessed by God’s grace
As together we explore the intersection between faith and daily life
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