Praying for the Christmas
The request to God is the thing that tripped us up. It was the first Christmas that my wife and I facilitated in our home, and for a decent 10 minutes, our two families remained around the supper table contending about how to thank God for the dinner we were going to consume.
My mother, a conceived again Christian, needed our request to God tended to Jesus. It was Christmas, when its all said and done; we were observing Jesus’ marvelous conception. “Shouldn’t we in any event petition him?” she asked sheepishly.
My younger sibling, an ardent Muslim, cherishes and respects Jesus as a prophet and ambassador of God. In any case she had no expectation of appealing to him. She balanced her hijab and muttered the Shahada under her breath (“I admit there is no god yet God”) as a sort of talisman to ensure her against my mother’s “blasphemy.”
My center sister, an activist nonbeliever, was remarkably irritated with the whole exhibition. She thought that it was tricky to accept we were remaining around the supper table, viewing the sustenance go frosty, as we pondered which nonexistent divinity we ought to appeal to before we could begin consuming. “Why don’t we simply appeal to Santa Claus?” she said. Nobody else found that clever.
My wife’s family, evangelicals from Pittsburgh, was basically befuddled regarding why we were serving rice and shish kebabs with our Christmas turkey and pureed potatoes.
At long last, my wife thought of a thought. “Why don’t we let Reza choose?” she proposed, volunteering me to be the arbitrator in this request to God match.
I assume her proposal boded well. I am a researcher of religions who has committed his life to mulling over the confidence customs of the world and afterward showing those conventions to individuals who don’t impart them. For me, this first Christmas at the Aslan family was for all intents and purpose field research. As I viewed these individuals from various religious and social foundations explore an occasion with truly particular religious and social affiliations, I was enticed to haul out my note pad and start scribbling down my perceptions.
Wish you all a great Merry Christmas 2014