Happy Chanukah!
It is time for me to take a break from the Parashats long enough to slip in a little Hebrew lesson, so to speak. This lesson has been on my mind for weeks, but has become so poignant over the last few days due to a family tragedy for a friend of mine. I can not go into detail for reasons of confidentiality, but I will ask that you pray anyway. It matters not when you are reading this, God will use your prayers to meet a need at the appointed time. It is also a special holiday season for the Jewish nation. Today is December 8, 2012 (USA) or 24 Kislev 5773 (Hebrew calendar) and the season of Chanukah begins today at sunset. Chanukah is the Festival of Lights and what a lesson for us to explore at this time. I grumble and complain at the many things that prevent me from sitting down at my computer to write, but how appropriate that God, blessed be He, would allow those things to interfere in order for me to have this lesson ready today! Praise Him!!!!
For this lesson we will travel back to Genesis and the creation. One of the Hebraic teachings is that at creation everything perfectly reflected the image of God as in a mirror. When sin entered the picture the mirror shattered into billions of pieces. As that mirror shattered, everything in creation was left with at least a small shard of that image within it. Some shards were large, yet some were so tiny they could not be seen by the naked eye. The important principle in this is the fact that all humans contain within in them at least a fragment of the image of God and that carries within it....HOPE!
I had almost forgotten this principle when just a few weeks ago I was in a discussion with a friend regarding a certain individual. I made the statement that there was no hope for them to which she replied, "they contain a sliver of glass, there is always hope." I had to eat a little crow that day, but I was so glad she reminded me of that.
As I turned around on the job and went back to work, with my head hung low in shame at myself, I began to think about the man who lived among the tombs in Luke 8:26. He most likely was mentally ill and it seemed as if everyone was, at the very least, afraid of him, but had also written him off as "hopeless." Then Jesus came along and He saw, what was that....a sliver? And Jesus said, "My Father wants the piece of glass that lies in your heart to come back home to the mirror. Will you let me put it back in place?" And the man said, "You believe there is hope for, for.....mmme?"
Not only did Jesus see something in the man, but the man saw something in Jesus. Do you know what it was? Let me give you another example and see if you can grasp where I am going with this. It has to do with Chanukah!
The first time I heard my Rabbi tell this principle my mind immediately thought about an incident which happened many years ago with my parents. When I was about 10 years old, my parents were in St. Louis, Missouri and my dad bought my mom a set of wedding rings at a pawn shop. My mom had never owned more than a gold band and now she had a diamond ring and band to match. The diamond was a sizable one and she wore it for several years before deciding to have it placed into a new fancier mounting. She wore it faithfully without ever taking it off, even when doing laundry by hand (mistake). One evening before going to bed she looked down and noticed the diamond was missing from the setting. She and my father turned the house upside down looking for that diamond to no avail. They looked for weeks, but still nothing. Finally my dad said, "well, I'll just buy you another." And he did.
The next day my parents visited the jewelry store of a friend and they bought a new ring with an even bigger stone. My mother claimed the stone was too big, but daddy said nothing was too good for his wife. Almost a year went by and as they were walking around outside they walked into the garage. It happened that the morning light was coming into the garage at just the right angle. My dad glanced at the stairway and said, "what is that?" He bent down by the steps leading up into the house and what did he find? The lost diamond! My mother was a meticulous housekeeper and had swept that garage hundreds of times over that year, but had obviously not swept up close to the steps.
The diamond was taken to the jewelers and re-set into its mounting where it still sits today. Both rings are now worn by me, since my mother has passed on, but the story of the lost diamond lives on. You see, only when the light hit the stone just right, could the stone be seen, but it required a light.
It is God's desire that the mirror be put back together. Impossible, you say? Not with God. Nothing is impossible with him. When the mirror shattered, God put a plan in place to redeem all the pieces. God's plan was to send a light into the world to seek out the lost shards in order that they may be found. John 1:5, 9, 12 "The light shone in the darkness and the darkness did not overtake it. The real light that shines to every person was coming to the world. To those who received him, who believed in His name, He gave strength to become sons of God."
As His children, we have been given the task of carrying the light and shining it into the darkened world. In the words of Matthew 28:19 As we go into all the nations, we are to be looking for those shards to bring them to the Father for redemption.
Romans 10:14-15, "How, then can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, 'How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!'"
We are, therefore to look for that shard of reflection in each and every thing, but especially each and every person. We are never to take any human being lightly or regard them as worthless for they contain a reflection of the image of God within them. The image in some is easily seen, but in others whose lives have been so covered in the mud and mire of this world, that image is hidden from us and we have to dig deep in order to find it.
Looking for that shard may require us to leave our comfort zone and venture into unknown or frightening waters or it may result in pain (have you ever broken a mirror or a glass and cut yourself on a small shard while trying to find all the pieces?). It matters not the cost, do it anyway. We are given a task and are promised that He, the Light of the world, will be with us as we go. We are only called to take the light, it is not our job to redeem. That job belongs to God and God alone. Only when the light of God hits the sliver of glass can it be seen and at that moment He will draw it back to it's rightful place.
And this is why Torah matters! It is within Torah that we learn our principles so we might better understand the work Yeshua (Jesus) layed out for us in the Gospels! Do you have eyes to see? Do you have ears to hear? Let me share with you a little known fact among Christans. Everything Yeshua said in the Gospels is either a direct quote from or a comment on the Torah (either the written or the oral Torah); therefore if you do not know Torah, can you truly understand the Gospels?
Do many of the scriptures you memorized as a child come into your head right about now? Are they making more sense? What about Luke 19:10: "For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost." or the story of the woman in Luke 15:8 who lost one of her coins or the story of the lost sheep? What about the many, many scripture about the Light: (just a few) Psalm 119:130, Isaiah 9:2, Matthew 4:16, Daniel 2:22. I could go on and on, but I needed to let you see the connection. It is in Torah that we realize how much God loves and cares for all men, for it is there you see how intricate the plan was to redeem them.
God believes that all humans have value and are worth redeeming . Some of them will reflect His light easily, while others will need the Light to hit them at just the perfect angle. When we forget the image principle, we fall into a dangerous chasm. It is a place where we begin to regard humans as mere objects without value or worth. This is the point of the following scripture from the book of Amos, where the prophet proclaims this sin as being the very thing God has against the nation of Israel at the time. It certainly sounds like our world at the current time, selling or even killing someone for their shoes!
Amos 2:6-7: "for their selling a righteous man for money and a poor man for shoes. They aspire as they walk along for the head of the poor and they twist the judgment of the humble; a man and his father go to a young woman in order to have their way with her."
All humans have worth whether they are rich, poor, functional, dysfunctional, sound-minded, not of sound mind, etc. Get the point? And, everyone has a story of what brought them to this place at this very moment. If you only knew the story behind every person you came into contact with, you might be more tolerant and be willing to shine the light to look for the sliver. That obnoxious woman who works near you? Perhaps she believes no one loves her and all she really needs is to be loved. And the boss you can never please? Yeah, well, maybe he had a dad he could never please either. Or the co-worker who is absent a lot? Just might be that his wife suffers from a mental illness and he is having to deal with another crisis at home. What about the guy who always looks like he hasn't had any sleep? Well maybe he has a teenager who is giving him a lot of trouble. Or that..... well, you understand.
The absolute truth is everyone, including you, has a story. Everyone is dealing with something difficult in their life and has some type of need, BUT at the same time all have a sliver of God's image in them. Now during this Festival of Lights keep shining His light into all the world. Take every opportunity given to find the pieces of that image so each and every one can have the chance to return to it's rightful place in the mirror. There is another lesson just waiting for you that will take this one a step further. Wait for it and it will come at the appointed time (oh that is even another lesson)! Are you beginning to get excited about Torah? Shalom!
If you want to know more about Chanukah and it's celebration, you may do so at the following website: http://www.chabad.org/holidays/chanukah/default_cdo/jewish/Hanukkah.htm
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