A house with no people living in it is but an empty shell.
It will never be a home. People are the soul that make a house a home.
And so man is composed of both body and soul.
A body with no soul is a beast or a statue.
A soul without a body is an angel or a ghost.
Body and soul need nourishment to stay alive.
It is food for the body and affirmation for the soul.
It seems so natural for us to eat.
But it takes a while to realize that
we need affirmation to keep the soul healthy.
We need both food and affirmations continuously and constantly.
Food, we are all familiar with.
Affirmation is hugs, kisses, words of affection.
They usually come from others
but we can also give them to ourselves.
When food and affirmation are shared simultaneously,
they become even more nourishing.
Like a shared meal around the table with the family,
or among friends and loved ones.
For relationships are powerful nourishment for the soul
and it takes a village to feed a village.
The most powerful affirmations come from the source of the soul.
And Christmas is God’s most powerful affirmation of his relationship with us.
He came to join us in our humanity.
It is worthwhile being and becoming human.
Unworthy though I may be, he created me.
Weak and riddled with incapacities that I am, he still declares:
“This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”
Fearful and in doubt, often lost and bewildered,
He assures me, “Do not be afraid for I shall always be with you.”
And what greater affirmation than this,
“Can a mother forget the baby at her breast
and have no compassion on the child she has borne?
Though she may forget, I will not forget you!
See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands.”