day no. 17,386: cannibals or cousins?

“Christmas is utterly unsuited to the modern world. It presupposes the possibility of families being united, or reunited, and even of the men and women who chose each other being on speaking terms. Thus thousands of young adventurous spirits, ready to face the facts of human life, and encounter the vast variety of men and women as they really are, ready to fly to the ends of the earth and tolerate every alien or accidental quality in cannibals or devil-worshippers, are cruelly forced to face an hour, nay sometimes even two hours, in the society of Uncle George; or some aunt from Cheltenham whom they don't particularly like. Such abominable tortures cannot be tolerated in a time like ours…It is intolerable that such sensibility should suffer the shock of the unexpected appearance of her own mother, or possibly her own child. It was never supposed that Parents were included in the great democratic abstraction called People. It was never supposed that brotherhood could extend to brothers.” ― G.K. Chesterton

The embittered consider the cannibalism of a stranger more endurable than the politics of a parents. They would rather come face to face with a devil worshiping foreigner than have any face time with a boring relative.

"If all cultures are equal, then cannibalism is just a matter of culinary taste." — Léo Strauss

Where Christ is not obeyed, the cannibalistic butchery of the barbarian can be tolerated, but the antiquated customs of your cousin cannot. In some exceptional cases, cannibalism may even be adopted by some as a way of trying to take the bite out of the whole situation.

Galatians 5:15

If ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another.

Some people would rather run the risk of chewing others up for the chance of getting to chew others out. They'd rather be friends with those who consume men than be friendly to those men God has called their brothers. But the best measure of a man is not his ability to get along with those he has to travel a long way to meet, it is his willingness to get along with those he has to travel home to see again.

"The best way that a man could test his readiness to encounter the common variety of mankind would be to climb down a chimney into any house at random, and get on as well as possible with the people inside. And that is essentially what each one of us did on the day that he was born." ― G.K. Chesterton, Heretics

All of our neighbors were once strangers, including our parents. We do not prove our mettle by finding new strangers to admire, but by finding new ways to admire old friends.

"When we step into a family, we step into a world that we have not made. In other words, when we step into the family we step into a fairy tale." ― G.K. Chesterton, Heretics

We can choose our surroundings, but God chooses our foundings. Everyone is born into something somewhere. Everyone belongs to someone and owes someone something. We must love our neighbors as ourselves which in this case means realizing that they may feel just as stuck with you as you feel you are with them.

“The Bible tells us to love our neighbors, and also to love our enemies; probably because generally they are the same people.” ― G.K. Chesterton

It is easy to get along with people you share nothing in common with. Getting along in that case is easy, it costs you nothing. They don't need anything from you and demand nothing from you. You have no obligation to any of them and they do not owe you anything. The fact that you don't share anything in common means you have less to fight over because neither of you want the same thing.

"In a world of increasing disconnectedness, the very act of gathering together at Christmas is an act of defiance." ― Ryan Whitaker Smith, Winter Fire

In the end, it will be Christ or chaos. There will be connection in Christ and there will be disconnectedness outside of Him. As the world around us chases chaos, we must gather around Christ. This includes coming together for Christmas. We are at war with the world and one family sitting around home with one prayer before one meal is a nuclear family bomb. It is devastating to those who bow before devastation.