I woke up this morning with a vivid dream so disturbing that I immediately prayed to God to reveal to me the meaning of that vision. I was so down stricken, a feeling of helplessness came within me.

My dream was about cutting ties and separation from someone I deeply love. I will not go into details about the identities of people in my dream. It involved people I closely know personally in life. In that dream, I was so distraught that the love of my life is leaving me just because he was influenced by what the other person had told him and he believed every word, damaging words against me. He wanted to hold on to me, but the stronghold that the person was on him was so great that he was under his "magic spell." He was blindly following every desire of this person to break up our union that has stood the test of time. I was so appalled and I tried to wake myself up as it was killing me inside.

I asked God for the meaning of the dream. God brought into my memory the prayer I had the night before. It was the answer to that prayer. He gave me wisdom and discernment that above all things, His love for us started His creation. It started a magnificent plan and purpose to deliver His creation from destruction. It is His love that Jesus was born. God spelled compassion in my heart. His message is to imitate His compassion when I become critical of others' lifestyle and belief system. Pray for them that are lost. God ignited the sleeping compassion in my heart. In so doing, God can reflect His love towards others. It will lead them to the knowledge of Jesus Christ- His birth, His crucifixion and His resurrection.  His love that He imputed in me might be the only one that the next person can see and lead the person to know Jesus and God.

That was how I came to truly know Jesus and God. It was not based on His commands and precepts. My spiritual awakening and revelation did not come because I was reading the Holy Bible, which I could not understand in the first place before I became a born again Christian. I did not have any interest in reading it and I was totally blindsided and I would stop Christians from their tracts who were trying to convert me. God led me to Him because He revealed His love for me. That no matter what I did sinful in my life, His arms are wide open to welcome me in His kingdom. God used one Holy Week to lead me to where I am now. His love and compassion brought me down to my knees and pursued Him and made me go after His own heart which started in the person of Jesus Christ. Someone must have prayed for me and whoever that was, I was blessed by it. God is big on prayers. He listens to sincere prayers and He blessed me and removed the veil covering my eyes. After that, the Holy Bible became real to me. God's words penetrating in my heart; every nook and cranny of what His words are conveying to me, they've become my life's manual.  Hebrews 4:12 tells us:
For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. And His love has started it all for me.

This Christmas, it has given me a new hope, a new outlook about the next person, just like the first time when I was a Christian newbie. That no matter when Jesus was born, the month or year is not as valuable to me than as to why He was born. It was the reason and the purpose as to why He was born. It was God's love that brought that Christmas baby in that humble manger. God cannot keep that big love for mankind to Himself. Christmas was brought about to light the world of His love for us. And if I can reflect that love to others; even how simple of a message I can bring to the next person, that's what matters to God. I have to always remember the story of  Jonah that however he tried to avoid God's intentions, God's purpose for him prevailed. As much as Jonah wanted for the destruction of the wicked people of Nineveh, God has other plans. God knew that the people of Nineveh will return back to Him and would change their ways, but a compassionate person has to be willing to encourage them and warn them of God's judgment in a subtle way. To point them to the ultimate love that God has for them. No matter how sinful they are, God is so merciful. His love endures forever.

This is the message of Christmas. His love through His Son reflected in the whole month of December. This one special event that we celebrate Jesus birth for the world to see.  The reflection of God's love that one has to pause and contemplate; whether life is so busy, so lonely, so depressing, so gloomy- the lights within Christians celebrating the love of God through His Son on Christmas day will somehow give them a ray of hope. That God's love, if they don't miss the point of the Christmas celebration, will penetrate in their hearts and think of God's love towards them.