200- Christ Is the Joy of the Family

 In bitterness, Sarah walked from one room to another saying, “Hell can’t be worse than my life now. I'll kill myself. It’s the only way to find rest. I hate my life, my husband and even my kids. I don’t want to be a wife or a mother. I feel like a slave spending all morning preparing food, washing dishes and cleaning. I’ve no choice but suicide.”

Sarah got hold of a razor so as to cut the veins of her left wrist. No one would stop her.

Suddenly the phone rang but Sarah ignored it. “There’s no one who loves me,” she thought “No one can sympathize with me.”

The phone kept ringing and Sarah started wondering who it might be, “Is it my parents who brought me to this life of fatigue and bitterness? Is it my friends? I’ve no friends. Is it my husband who took away all of my happiness? I can’t stand the touch of his hand. I don’t want to hear his voice.”

Sarah was very confused. Finally she decided to answer. She picked up the phone and thought, “This will be the last phone call in my life. ‘Hello’”

“Hello Sarah!”

“Yes, who are you?”

“Someone who loves you.”

“No one loves me.”

“I love you. There is also another one who loves you even more than me.”

“Who are you?”

“You don’t know my name. I’m your neighbor. I saw you looking very desperate in the balcony this morning. I felt the bitterness of your soul. I found out your telephone number. I can’t rest while you are in distress, That is why I want to talk to you.”

“What do you want?”

“I want to assure you that you have a true Bridegroom who loves you dearly.”

“Who is that bridegroom?”

“He’s the great Lord Jesus Christ who died for your sake and rose from the dead. He’s preparing a place for you.”

“I don’t think that He loves me. I decided to commit suicide. Hell is more convenient for me than this life.”

“Remember the love of Jesus Christ for you and His true promises for you.”

The neighbor started to talk to her about the joyful promises of God and the deeds of Jesus Christ who fills the heart and the family with joy. Sarah lifted her heart towards her Savior and asked Him to fill her heart with comfort and stand with her family. The razor fell from her hand after she hung up. She had promised her friend to call her back. She knelt down to pray for the first time in tears.

 “Lord Jesus, declare Yourself to my heart and my household. I’ll never leave You no matter what happens. Hold my hand and guide my family so that we might be happy amidst our pains.”

Sarah felt that everything in her life had changed: her concept of God who arranges for her a place in heaven, her attitudes towards life as well as her thoughts towards her parents, her husband and her kids.

When the kids came back from school, she welcomed them with great joy as if she was seeing them for the first time. Happiness filled the house. Tears poured down on her face when she thought what would have happened if the kids had come home and found her dead. They would have been shocked and left without a mother.

She heard the door opening. It was her husband. She hastened to open the door welcoming him with great excitement, which was unusual.

Sarah told her husband what had happened.

They prayed together and then he said to her, “Tomorrow you’ll receive a letter from me. Today I decided to commit suicide and I came to bid you and the kids farewell. But thanks to God, my peace and happiness are restored. I don’t know what to say. I feel guilty towards God, you and the kids. Now let Jesus Christ take the leadership of our family. Yes, come Lord Jesus Christ. Glorify Yourself in our small church.”

The first thing Jesus did in His service was attending the wedding at Cana of Galilee and His transformation of the water into wine. This reveals Jesus Christ's concern for the family. He wanted to establish it Himself and support it with His love. He wanted to present a new conception of marriage and fill the family with love and happiness by His permanent presence amidst it.

The family is not a mere bond between a man and a woman to produce kids. It is a lively icon of heavenly life. The law of the family is the sacrificing love. The language of the family is limitless sacrifices without expecting rewards. Its place is beside Jesus Christ where it is born, washed with the precious Blood and protected by Him. It is the second kingdom of love in which Jesus dwells.

“How could we express the happiness of marriage, established in the Church, confirmed by offerings and stamped with blessing?”

(Tertullian the Scholar)

→ English translation of the story here at St-Takla.org: المسيح مُفرِّح الأسرة.

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