As I sit at the keyboard, today is Yom Kippur – the highest, holiest day of the Jewish Calendar.  [Technically, it began yesterday at sundown.]  It is The Day of Atonement – that one day each year when the High Priest would enter the innermost sanctuary of the Temple – “The Holy of Holies” – and make a sacrifice for the sins of all the people: “Atonement will be made for you on this day to cleanse you, and you will be clean from all your sins before the Lord.” – Leviticus 16:30.  A day of gratitude and praise. 

There is much in this Holy Day that has significance for believers in Christ, which we ought to spend time exploring.  For now, I’ll stop with this – for followers of the Jewish religion, it is often known simply as “Yoma”, which means – “The Day”.

Can you imagine?  “Today is The Day!”, our Jewish friends might be saying with joy to one another at this very moment.  To have such an amazing and blessed event memorialized as “The Day” throughout the world-wide population of Jewish People is a great gift.  On a much smaller, individual scale, people remember such things as their Wedding Day, their Graduation Day, their Birthday, and maybe a few other similar, happy events that took place on a certain “Day”.  And sure, you can share those special days with family and friends.  But, it’s not like EVERYBODY knows, or cares, that you have a reason to be celebrating that day.  It’s pretty much just another day for everybody else.    

Unfortunately, unlike Yom Kippur, when we think of things that EVERYBODY, or at least a great many of the people of the world would associate with a certain “Day”, it seems that such “Days” are almost universally times of tragic or horrifying events: December 7th – “a Day that will live in Infamy”, September 11th, JFK’s assassination, D-Day, Hiroshima Day, Hurricane Katrina Day, the list goes on.  You get the point.  Such “Days” are times of memory and sorrow that are common to and shared among a community, or a Nation, and perhaps even beyond a single Nation.  Even the passage of time does not, and should not erase or lessen the grief and sorrow associated with such “Days”.    

What is “The Day” in your life?  I hope it’s something wonderful.  I fear it’s probably not. 

“The Day of the accident.”  “The Day of the fire.”  “The Day of the flood.”  “The Day that everything changed.”  “The Day that I lost her/him.”  “The Day that I lost everything.”  One of those might be your “The Day”.  Or maybe it’s something else.  But whatever it is, unlike the joyful yearly remembrance of Yom Kippur or your Wedding Day, you’ll get another, bitter reminder of the very thing that made it “The Day” every year that rolls around – as if you could ever forget – as if the burden had somehow become lighter and easier to bear over the last year.  And sure, friends and family know and share the grief and sorrow of your “The Day” with you.  But, it’s not like EVERYBODY knows, or cares, that you have a reason to be hurting on this day.  Mostly, it’s just you and your memories on your “The Day”.  For the rest of the world, life just goes on.              

Maybe you don’t have a “The Day” in your life – yet.  Enjoy it while you can.      

I have one.  I wish I didn’t. 

Ambrose Ramsey | Pastor and Shepherd