Happy, healthy and…with headache

Recently, I was hit by the Holy Family! Literally… How did it happen? Few weeks before Christmas I was cleaning one of my working spaces and needed to move a shelf on which was the statue of the Holy Family. As I was adjusting the position of the stand with the shelves, the wooden statue of the Holy Family fell off and hit me on my forehead. If someone would watch could say it was hilarious, but it was not funny at all. Within seconds, I felt a significant lump on my head and started my search for an ice pack in the kitchenette. Even later that day I still was looking for ways of making me feel better and had to be very careful when washing and combing my hair. The statue survived without a scratch (even previously was broken and repaired with the super- glue).  

What does this incident have to do with the new year and happiness? When I thought about all Christmas cheers and all messiness of life we live in, I thought about the Holy Family struggles. No doubt Mary and Joseph were genuinely worried about the birth of Jesus. No doubt they were terrified about the Herod’s action of killing all innocent babies knowing they have one of their own. No doubt they were anxious about the future of their family and apprehensive to decide based on messages received from God in their dreams or unexplainable circumstances.

How did they keep it all together? As a faithful Jew and a head of the family, St Joseph would pray three times a day: Shema. Hear, O Israel: Adonai is our God, Adonai in One! Blessed is God’s name; His glorious kingdom is for ever and ever! And you shall love Adonai your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might. (Deuteronomy 6:4–9, Deuteronomy 11:13–21 and Numbers 15:37–41). As any other Jewish women of their time, Mary would most likely say the traditional prayers of blessings when making the bread, putting on the lights in the house before the Shabbat meal or nursing Baby Jesus to sleep.  

These prayers would certainly keep them going, but would they save their family from fears, challenges, and headaches? Based on their life story of which little we know from the Bible, I would imagine that it did not.

What’s the point of praying, then? Maybe simply to remember that even if we feel that there is nothing in our life which we control–God is in control. We might struggle with many things, but knowing that He is a loving God reassures us we are not doing it on our own. Life will never be headache free. Even health is not given or certain (especially during this already third year of a global pandemic). Despite of having any prayer traditions or not–the trust of letting God leading our life is something to hold on when life hit us hard.

Happy New Year, everyone!