Instead of the usual beautiful Christmas tree decorations, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bethlehem had piled up a heap of rubble and placed the baby Jesus in it during Christmas last year. The pastor, Reverent Munther Isaac said, “If Jesus had been born today, he would have been born under the rubble.” This is what Emmanuel means. God is with us. He is with us in our pain and suffering, and in the rubble of this world.
As I visited the earthquake affected area in Noto Peninsula, Japan, last week, this same thought came to me. If Jesus had been born in Japan today, He might have been born under the rubble of this earthquake. God is where people hurt the most. God feels our pain and suffering and He is ever ready to help when we cry out to Him. God is in the rubble in Turkey, Ukraine, Japan, Gaza and Israel. And He is in the rubble of our own lives. That is how God introduced Himself to Israel.
When God revealed Himself to Moses on Mount Sinai, the first thing He said about Himself is that He is a compassionate God. “The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God…” (Exodus 34:6 NIV). The word compassion in Hebrew, “Rachum”, means to be moved by the pain and suffering of others. It is a deep inner emotion that comes from our core. It is related to another Hebrew word, called, “Rachim”, which means a mother’s womb. Just as a mother has compassion over her baby child, so God has compassion over us. Compassion is a feeling that not only drives us to feel sorry for others, but also to take action.
May God use us to show compassion to those suffering in the world today.
Stephan Smithdorff
