Surprised by Grace (33): Life is not a dead end

Advent.
Waiting and hoping.
Should have been.

In the famine stricken African continent, flies harass toddlers and their mothers.
The looks in their eyes speak of a hopelessness in the future.
Staring into oblivion.
As if telling what they believe: there’s nothing to hope for.
They seem to be saying, “we resigned to dying anytime for life is a dead end for us.”
In fact, they could live for a long life and never noticed a difference.
They have been dead, inside.

And documentaries about women in economically depressed and politically oppressed places show similar dead end feel.
Young women appear to be ignorant of, or rather given up hope for, the possibility of education and upward mobility so second nature to HK people.
Their hope is, over surviving, merely to avoid being violated, and become a wife and a mother.
There’s nothing else, neither education nor career.
Not even self actualisation.
Dead end again.

And then those poor farmers and villagers in totalitarian countries such as China.
Even without pains inflicted by earthquake or flooding, their looks seem to tell a similar story.
Just work, hope for good weather, year after year, no need to gather wealth.
It won’t happen.
Destiny has the upper hand.
It’s a meaningless dead end.

The notion of the pursuit of liberty and happiness—and the unspoken hope that it’s attainable—so etched in those exposed in western thoughts, is shockingly nonexistent in the minds of the above groups.
As if their gods didn’t fashion such a ridiculous possibility in the creatures!

All these groups have resigned to the fact that their lives matter zilch, so that they don’t even need to bother themselves!

It must be debilitating.
Young people living day in and day out with just a sure outcome of eventual death.
And before that definite eventuality, life is like a hamster exercising wheel: you could keep paddling but it is not going anywhere!
It’s not even a treadmill.
Can’t even quit and step outside!

Such were lives being lived by young and able shepherds in the Middle East one winter night years ago.

“That night there were shepherds staying in the fields nearby, guarding their flocks of sheep.” (Luke 2:8 NLT)

If their gods didn’t care, it would be just another cold winter night.
But this particular night, something was different, unbeknown to the shepherds.
Something broke into their destiny.

Prospero Fontana: Adoration of the Shepherds (before 1597) (Prospero Fontana [painter], Irina [photographer], Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

“Suddenly, an angel of the Lord appeared among them, and the radiance of the Lord’s glory surrounded them. They were terrified, but the angel reassured them. ‘Don’t be afraid!’ he said. ‘I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people. The Savior—yes, the Messiah, the Lord—has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David! And you will recognize him by this sign: You will find a baby wrapped snugly in strips of cloth, lying in a manger.’” (Luke 2:9-12 NLT)

Someone broke into the shepherds’ life.
Not just any someone.
Angel!
Not just any angel.
An angle of the LORD!

The deadend life became open ended.
The hamster exercise wheel turned into a motorbike.
Vast uncertainties and opportunities.

And bewilderment didn’t even have time to take a breather.

One angel became a CHOIR!

“Suddenly, the angel was joined by a vast host of others—the armies of heaven—praising God and saying,
“Glory to God in highest heaven,
and peace on earth to those with whom God is pleased.” (Luke 2:13-14 NLT)

If there’s a piece of news, and good news, that affects the world, there must be hordes of qualified recipients and heralds.
But according to the Gospel, the LORD sent His angels to that group.

Which group?

The group who was doing the job probably no one would do for it must be freezing cold at night.
And the job was nowhere near challenging to yield any job satisfaction for sheep must rank as the most boring and dumb.
Then there was absolutely no prospect for a shepherd to be promoted to become say an accountant.

So this group was in the same category as those mentioned in the beginning, living in, and knowingly so, a dead end life.
No hope.
No way out.
No excitement.
And no variation either.

It should have been as dead as night.
Should have been.

But Grace always surprises.
Shepherds forever coined Advent.

God of grace broke into the shepherds’ lives.
Unchained their deadend-ness.
Juiced their job with sights and sound, and sight of the Baby no less, and into one of the pioneering human heralds of the great news!

Did God care?
Did God care about the downtrodden, hopeless, and boring dead-Enders?

Isn’t God the God of Grace?
Isn’t grace surprising?

Advent.
So beautiful.