CEBU, Philippines - It was a coverage she could not miss. Earphones stuck to her ears monitoring reports as she took a tricycle to the disaster coordinating council headquarters. Other reporters were there ahead of her. Worried that she may have been outscooped, she asked fellow reporters if there had been a press conference or if the chairman of the disaster coordinating council had granted interviews. Just like everybody else, they were kept endlessly waiting.
It was easy for members of the media to make a full coverage of flash floods, deaths and devastation that Typhoon Sendong had wrought. The press are like vultures. They feed on carcasses -- counting the dead, looking for ways to make a disaster story really disastrous. The more disastrous a story, the more deaths, the more it sells to readers. As reporters waited with bated breaths for the council chairman to make a statement, desk editors in newsrooms already had an outline and a headline in mind -- "Thousands killed in Sendong Rage." Where there are carcasses, there the vultures are... or should we say... there the press get feed for stories.
While broadcasts and print reports were flooded with stories of deaths and hyped solicitations for support, nothing was said that there was reason to cheer. There were no stories that there was affection in affliction, nor were there stories that man's immorality and corrupt imaginations of the heart may have provoked God to anger. Sometimes it does not need weather forecasters to determine when a fierce storm is coming. One only has to look at Scripture and discern indications of a coming storm. It is when humanity is filled with violence and corruption that God sends a flood to cleanse humanity. No amount of sophisticated weather forecasting can stop God from meting violent and deadly storms. Yet it is in these afflictions that we know God's affections.
Affection in Affliction
God's affection is for His Son, the Lord and Saviour Jesus. God wants to spare His Son from the profanity by which humanity marks what is called "Christmas." It is not God's way to celebrate the birth of His Son, the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ with the revelry for idols. It has displeased God that humanity celebrates Christmas on December 25 when there is nothing in Scripture that says Jesus Christ was born on such date. In fact, there is nothing in Scripture that would give any hint that Christ was born in winter. That Scripture gives account of wise men who travelled on a clear night and led by a star, means that the Son of God was not born in winter for how can a star be seen on a wintry night? It was the Holy See who marked December 25 as Christ's birthday. It is utter lie, abject deception and blasphemy of the highest order to say that Christ was born on December 25. That God sent Typhoon Sendong barely one week before December 25, is a confirmation that God wants humanity to stop the sacrilegious celebrations.
God has affection for humanity. He does not want His creation to be materialistic and covetous. From the start, this concept of Christmas as gift-giving is nothing but perception management. Christmas has always been a marketing strategy for businessmen to get their inventories sold before the end of the year. Christmas has made man materialistic and covetous and at an early age. This idea of Santa Claus and a reindeer with a red nose named Rudolph has thrown children to become hapless victims of materialism. Santa Claus is not a saint. There is no record of a saint named Nicolas in Scripture. That the reindeer's nose is red could be the color of the Devil. Could it be Satan incarnate? This idea of gift giving are but entrapments of pagan worship wrapped in the name of charity. The good and perfect gift that God gave through His Son is the gift of salvation. It is the salvation from a materialistic, evil and doomed world. If Christ died for the sins of man, why then must man celebrate "Christmas" with the sins of materialism and revelry of pagan worship? That God sent a flood killing thousands and razing whole barangays into watery graves, sends a strong message that Christmas and partying are doctrines of devils.
In the aftermath of Sendong's wrath, some local government units had to and some opted to cancel their Christmas parties if only to sympathize with the victims. God had His Way of saying materialism and covetousness is man's destruction.
Vengeance is Mine
Through all these, there is greater reason to be of good cheer, God's affection is for humanity to be purged of Satan's stronghold. In the days of Noah, God sent a flood to cleanse the earth of all violence and corruption. What can stop Him from sending a flood again, afterall God is still the creator, the Alpha and the Omega of the earth. Wrote the Apostle Paul to the Hebrews in chapter 10, verses 30 to 32, "Vengeance belongeth to me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, the Lord shall judge his people. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. But call to remembrance the former days, in which, after ye were illuminated, ye endured a great fight of afflictions." Be of good cheer, these deadly storms and catastrophes is simply God in the flesh. He is the living God who can mete vengeance and judge people.
Disappointingly and embarrassingly, when reporters go on coverage for disaster stories, they are too busy counting the carcasses. They fail to see that the breaking news is not the statement from the disaster coordinating council chairman. It is the living God making His affections manifest, purging humanity from sin and corruption. Reporters missed the scoop. (FREEMAN)