Mankind was my business

"But you were always a good man of business, Jacob," faltered Scrooge, who now began to apply this to himself.

"Business!" cried the Ghost, wringing its hands again. "Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were, all, my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!" - A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens

Tomorrow is Christmas. I could barely believe that today was Christmas Eve. In the business of school and illness, I have been so preoccupied. I have only gotten out of my bed a couple times today and yesterday. While you would think that that would give me lots of time to reflect on the birth of Christ, really my thoughts have only been on myself. Funny how easy it is to think about yourself. And by funny I mean, deadly. That worked out rather nicely (Seth Cohen would approve, see season 2 episode 5, The SnOC (oops, did I mention I haven't left my bed lately??)), as I am now at the point which I would like to make regarding the bolded quote above. We've all watched A Christmas Carol a million times and know that Scrooge's biggest downfall was the fact that he was self-consumed and so had confused his profession with his purpose. Scrooge tells Marley that he was a good businessman, to which Marley tells him that his business was mankind. What does it mean to make mankind our business? It certainly resembles the heart of God. It might be self-centered to say that Christmas was all about mankind. But in a strange paradox God sending his son to earth was all about mankind, in the most God-glorifying, sacrificing way ever. So like God, we are to be about the business of mankind. Our job mustn't be confused with the divine calling to love and serve God by loving and serving people.

and that's all my brain can get out for now.

Oh, and this: Have a Merry Christmas