Sunday, December 24, 2006 Jesus: The reason for the season By Henry L. Yu, M.D.
ONE Yuletide Season, seven years ago, while I was seated inside the car waiting for our driver to pick up some grocery items, my attention was focused on this mother carrying her baby while quietly sitting in one corner outside a store. In her face I could see the loneliness, the emptiness, and the desolation of having nothing for the season.
Yet she was still hopeful she could buy something for her family, something to offer to her little children at home this Christmas. I was really moved to tears looking at her and the baby so much so that I got down from the car and handed her a hundred peso bill.
When I got back home, I prayed for that mother. As I was praying, a vision of Baby Jesus suddenly flashed. That Christmas of 1999, a family friend of ours gave us a basket of groceries. The basket was so beautifully crafted that it gave me an idea: To use it as a cradle for Baby Jesus. So, the cradle was ready. But where’s the Baby?
So the thought of finally buying a replica of Baby Jesus came into my mind. That particular day of December, 1999, while I was browsing over some books at a bookstore, lo and behold! Guess what I saw? It’s the replica of Baby Jesus being displayed. Instantly I said to myself, “This is the one! This is it!” I finally found the right one, the right kind, the exact replica of the Baby Jesus that I have wanted to have all these years.
The Baby Jesus who has appeared in my dreams several times over. It’s been seven long years since I got this replica and each Yuletide Season that comes, it always occupies center stage in our home. Indeed, Jesus is the Reason for the Season.
