Christmas according to Bono

There is on old abandoned store near our mall that has recently been turned into a giant book sale.  They have tons and tons of books that they apparently printed too many copies of so they are selling them really cheap.  Most of the books are between $2-$5.  Christie and I both like to read so we have to be careful not to get carried away and spent too much money.  We went in there one night this week and picked up four books for $16.  One of the books that I bought is a conversation style interview of Bono.  I have been tearing through it this week because it is very interesting.  This morning I was reading and the interviewer asked him why he was always quoting the Bible and talking about God no matter what the subject.  He asked for an example of a time that he read scripture and realized how it practically applied to something in life.  He gave a great answer and a great reminder of what Christmas is really all about.  Here it is:

He begins to tell a story about a time that we was attending a Christmas Eve service:

"...but I was falling asleep, being up for a few days, traveling, because it was a bit boring, the service, and I just started nodding off.  I couldn't see a thing.  Then I started to try to keep myself awake studying what was on the page.  It dawned on me for the first time, really.  It had dawned on me before, but it really sank in: the Christmas story.  The idea that God, if there is a force of Love and Logic in the universe, that it would seek to explain itself is amazing enough.  That it would seek to explain itself and describe itself by becoming a child born in straw poverty, in s**t and straw... a child... I just thought: "Wow!"  Just the poetry... Unknowable love, unknowable power, describes itself as the most vulnerable.  There it was.  I was sitting there, and its not that it hadn't struck me before, but tears came down my face, and I saw the genius of this, utter genius of picking a particular point in time and deciding to turn on this.  Because that's exactly what we were talking about earlier: love needs to find form, intimacy needs to be whispered.  To me, it makes sense.  It's actually logical.  It's pure logic.  Essence has to manifest itself.  It's inevitable.  Love has to become an action or something concrete.  It would have to happen.  There must be an incarnation.  Love must be made flesh."

I enjoyed that, so I thought I would share.  Merry Christmas!