The Pain Before Christmas

Look on my affliction and my pain,
And forgive all my sins. Psalm 25:18

As Christmas approaches, we don't want to rock the jolly boat by speaking of our pain. They are out there though, people in pain. Emotional pain, physical pain, and other sufferings are as common but perhaps more noticeable than in other seasons of the year. It is this time when the daylight is less and the air is colder that those with many physical conditions suffer more. Those who cannot get out to join in the holiday activities may feel more left out than at other times. I did some computer work for a customer last weekend whose knee suddenly began hurting and she had to get out a cane on the eve of her holiday travels. It happens more often than we know, people feeling the pain before Christmas.

King David in writing the 25th Psalm had an interesting method of bringing his pain to the Lord: he asked the Lord to see his pain and then forgive all of his sins. Eh? What's that? Yes, forgiveness in place of what we usually do; that is, to ask the Lord to heal the hurt or relieve the pain in time for the celebrations. Such writings in the Bible are so interesting to me. Is David thinking that by way of earning a break God should look on what he has suffered already? David was anointed in his youth with the Spirit of the Lord, so I don't think that is where the king is going with this. What he does know from God's dear Holy Spirit is that sin has caused the pain in the world. It may be his sin or the sin of another that is causing his pain, but David in his wisdom starts with that sin he knows most often, his own sins. What an amazing change of heart for those of us in pain in this season of Christmas!

Please, forgive all my sins, dear Lord, in this season of your birth celebration, and please heal any hurt my sins have caused others,

Bucky