Christmas Reflection

Raymond Carver’s pithy poem ‘Late Fragment’ captures something of the yearning of every human heart:


And did you get what

 You wanted from this life, even so?

I did

 And what did you want?

To call myself beloved, to feel myself

 Beloved on the earth


At Christmas time, most of us gather with friends and family. Our time, our gifts and our eating together are symbols of love and belonging.

For Christians, commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ connects us with a transforming message: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only son” (John 3:16).

We are not alone in the universe, or insignificant. Our lives are not meaningless. Rather, we are beloved: Christ was born and lived and died and rose to express God’s profound love for us.

Did you get what you wanted from this life, even so?

My prayer for this Christmas is that you will experience what all of us really want: that you will feel yourself beloved on the earth.

For you are... more than you could ever imagine.

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Charles C Hagaman said…
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28 February 2018 at 19:35
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