The Shadow
Dear Editor,
We would like to thank everyone who participated in Operation Christmas Child by packing a shoebox, donating money for shipping or volunteering at the drop-off location at Covington Bible Church this year.
Thanks to your generosity, 2,133 children around the world will not only receive a shoebox gift, but they will also have the opportunity to learn about the greatest gift of all — Jesus Christ.
We have been notified that shoeboxes from our area have been sent to: Angola, Colombia, Peru and the Dominican Republic.
We want to especially thank Covington Bible Church for once again serving as the drop-off location. We also extend our thanks to Cakes Your Way for providing a pick-up area for shoeboxes and Oliver’s Distributing for helping transport all of the shoeboxes to the next stop in their journey. And, we thank the Virginian Review for helping us get the word out to the community.
Thank you again to everyone who participated in this project and for those who do so year after year. These simple gifts, packed with love, send a message of hope and continue to bring joy to the lives of children worldwide.
Sincerely,
Laurie and Jon Fitzgerald
Drop-Off Leaders/Church Relations
Operation Christmas Child
Covington
Dear Editor,
Advent is here, leading us to the birthday of the, our, Great King over all things, both visible and invisible, seen and unseen.
We have all bought into the season of buying, with worries over whether we purchased the correct gifts for every person on our “list” and whether they will “like” them or not. The kids are whipped into a great anticipation over what will be under the tree come Christmas morn. We almost encourage them into thinking about presents for an entire month, or more, by putting up our trees so early.
Taking pause, here are a few thoughts to reflect upon, that are tied to Christ’s birth.
The Virgin Mary is the mother of Jesus Christ. She is the most holy human being, second only to our Lord Jesus Christ, Jesus having two natures, human and divine, man and God.
It follows rather directly, that if Jesus is God, then Mary is the Mother of God. This is recognized in the title given her, by the Eastern Christian churches, “Theotokos,” which means “God-bearer.”
Mary is the Mother of God, though she certainly did not precede God in existence, another one of those mysteries to reflect upon. Without her “fiat,” “yes,” given to the angel Gabriel at the great announcement (LK 1:26-38) made to her of God’s need to have her nurture Jesus for nine months in her womb, then raise him into adulthood, we might still be in a world near impossibly further from redemption than we are now. She was God’s chosen portal for Him to passage from eternity into our world of time.
Being the mother of the King also meant being the Queen of the King. In biblical times when kings had many wives, competition for who would be the “real” queen was dealt with by considering the king’s mother as the real queen. Maybe many wives, but only one mother, and she was most consulted for her wisdom and steadfastness.
Mary is considered Jesus’ queen, she who taught him his prayers, and loved him as only a mother can, and who suffered greatly as she watched him go through his passion and death during the prime of his life.
Jesus performed one of his first public miracles at Mary’s request, the converting of water into wine, the finest wine, at the wedding at Cana (JN 2:1-10). It seems likely the requester went to Mary first and not directly to Jesus, with the concern over running out of wine. Mary is, and should be, greatly honored for her position in the life of Jesus Christ.
One large misconception, regarding Catholics, is that Catholics worship Mary. Never have. Never will.
Catholics fully understand that Mary is Jesus’ mother, and also that Jesus loves His mother very much. Jesus listened to and obeyed His parents as a child (LK 2:51).
He listened to Mary at the Cana wedding. If He listened to his mother then, wouldn’t He at least consider her requests now?
We ask others, friends and pastors, to pray for us. What is wrong with asking the Mother of God to pray for us? The prayer known by Catholics as the “Hail Mary”, is quite scriptural. It goes like this – “Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee (LK 1:28). Blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus (LK 1:42-43). Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.”
Catholics recruit the Virgin Mary in our quest to become holy and pleasing to God by doing His will, which should be the quest of all Christians.
Considering the above, it is very trite, disrespectful at best, to call a football pass a “Hail Mary”.
It may have taken Mary about a week to travel from her home to where her elderly cousin Elizabeth was, to offer assistance. This meant that Jesus was still “just” a zygote in Mary’s womb, and St. John the Baptist “just” a fetus about six months old, in Elizabeth’s womb (LK 1:5-57… worth your time reading it all). Elizabeth called Mary “mother,”?even though she was only carrying the tiny Jesus, the Holy Zygote. This means Jesus was a living and growing baby, a person. Every mother only carries a baby, not a blob of tissue.
In our age of gene splicing and designer babies, we are enamored with science, a study of creation, and not with the Creator of creation, who also gave us intelligence to discover (only some of) the wonders of creation.
Let us not forget that the unseen part of conception is when a soul is graciously granted to the newly-paired RNA, when a sperm mates with an ovum.
Only then is a new human life granted existence in our physical world. Only then does a human life begin, with the driving force being granted for growth to begin, the actual start of each human life. This is why an abortion, the destruction of a new life, is such an abomination in the eyes of God.
Let us recall this Christmas, that when looking with tenderness on that kid in the manger, that that Kid is the King of the universe who brought all things, seen and unseen, into existence.
And He continues to sustain creation, every molecule, atom, and sub-atomic particle, with His benevolent oversight. And that Kid grew into an adult, who’s mission was to prove His love for us on the cross, bridging the vast chasm between Heaven and Earth, giving us a crack at being with our loving
God for all eternity, when we move from this life to the next.
Merry Christmas and may God bless us all, each and every one. Maranatha – Come, Lord Jesus!
Sincerely,
John Stec
Green Violet Drive
Covington
