A simple Prayer for this Christmas (Part 2 End)

'I need a good news', so prayed. A good one because it's raining and my shoes is wet. Before I went to office, I checked out my pocket, struggling searching for copper coins in my fit jean. I should buy another jean. 'Aha!!!’ my inner most being scream, exactly RM1.50 for me to brought a newspaper.

The first page was the beginning of what I called, "Soul Torture Marathon". Tenang's Sulaiman laid to rest. (In English, simply mean- he died) Elements of fraud in Sime Darby Berhad. Jealous lover stabs pregnant teen. North Korea threatens nuclear war. Screws and nails lying in the middle of Lebuh Sungai Pinang Road. And the only good news is; Pizza Hut now have cheesy to the max, 6 cheeses on top and even more cheese in the crust!

Have you heard William Hung sing 'She bangs' song over the radio? If you're not a fan like me, you'll find out that it is better to listen to him than to read this news. Drug dealer jumps to his death during police raid. Man stabs lover 19 times; teen loses her baby (repeated). Riot in Parliaments, Anwar and the gang. Ex-judge sentenced for seven corruption charges.

After I'd been ‘showered’ by this news, I innocently turn on the TV. for more news. For the first 20 minutes just like a deja vu, the news repeated over and over again. What worst was that it kept on adding news that I missed the whole week! No wonder that most people who spent their time watching TV., listening to radio, read newspaper(?) and surfing internet in the range of 8-10 hours per day (I'm talking about excessive behavior) are mostly negative person. That day, 18th December 2010, right until 10pm- I'm in negative mode... seriously, I am.

Before the night was over, I went for s-p-i-r-i-t-u-a-l moment, so I thought it would be good to neutralize the words and negative images in my mind with the words of hope in the Bible. I turned to The Gospel of Matthew, chapter 1, everyone’s favorite chapter on genealogy of Jesus, your favorite right?

The genealogy starts with Abraham to David, David to Jehoiachin and Jehoiachin to Joseph. There are 14 cool names and I wonder if I could pronoun it correctly. What's amazing about this is that; names in the genealogy are made up of a bunch of 'mistakes' people. Let me explain:

Abraham, who lied to the King of Egypt that Sarah was his sister, '... because of you they will let me live and treat me well.' (Gen. 12:13)

Jacob, Abraham's grandson, he cheated his older twin brother, Esau and lied toward his blind father, Isaac. Plus, he ‘accidentally’ was having sex with his daughter-in-law. (Gen. 27, 29)

Tamar*, a widow who tricked his father-in-law, Jacob, into thinking she was a hooker; she had sex with him and got pregnant.

Rehab*, a hooker who ran her business out of Jericho…

Ruth*, a foreigner.

David, who have an affair with Uriah's wife, Bathsheba and soon became pregnant and bore Solomon.

In Matthew 1:16, the genealogy stop at one man, a perfect one, 'Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who was called Christ.' Period. Instead of bringing peace to me, the lists rather confusing... so I asked, "What do you want to tell me Mr. Matthew?"

'There's hope', I hear a whisper. Hope for the future. Hope for us;

• We always break our promises, but God will never do it. If He said, He has a plan; He really has a Plan to save us.
• Our destiny does not determine by our family background, it’s determined by our faith in Jesus Christ.
• What seems impossible for us is possible for Him. The Word became human being and, full of Grace and Truth, lived among us.
• And finally, what seems bad news (and confusing...) in the world today, we have HOPE that someday... the Good News will last forever.

That night, my prayer is fulfilled; I received the Good News. Zzz... Tonight, it’s yours.
---------------------
For part 1: A 'taste' of Christmas
P.s: * is taken from Stephen M. Miller's book, The Jesus of the Bible.