Don't have winter without Christmas

I love Christmas!  Yes, it tends to be a busy time, with special Christmas services etc., but there’s no doubt that the Advent/Christmas season is my favourite time of the year.

I guess that this goes back to my childhood experiences of Christmas.  My young mind was filled with expectation and excitement as the great day drew near.  Early on Christmas morning we would gather as a family round the Christmas tree (I was one of six children!)  The presents would have been placed around the base of the Christmas tree; one by one Dad would take the presents and hand them out to us. 

Then, of course, we would go church to celebrate with our church family, before heading back home to examine our presents again and prepare for a hearty Christmas dinner.  The image of those wonderful occasions are still so vivid, even though they recede ever further into history.

The Christmas Day church service was (and still is) a vital element of our Christmas celebrations.  It is a reminder of what Christmas is all about – celebrating the amazing, wonderful fact that God stepped into our world and lived among us.  I love The Message translation of John 1:14, ‘The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighbourhood.’  Or, as hymn writer Charles Wesley put it, ‘Our God contracted to a span, incomprehensibly made man.’

The sad irony of the birth of Jesus is that so many people who had been waiting expectantly for so long for God to send the Messiah, never realised that God had fulfilled his promise, and that Messiah had come!  Perhaps many were so focused on other things that they missed the most important event – an event so significant that it cut history in half!

I saw a Facebook posting earlier today which said that a friend had witnessed two women fighting over a turkey in a supermarket.  Another Facebook friend related how they had been in a supermarket queue for approaching an hour.  It’s so easy to get so tied up in the hectic rush to prepare for the celebrations that we forget the One whose birth we are celebrating.

The message of the angels to the shepherds was of ‘good news that will cause great joy for all the people.’  Good news for ALL!  My prayer is that this Christmas time many more will discover that God’s love in Christ is for them.  Finally, the last verse of the carol “Cradled in a manger, meanly”:

And to those who never listened
To the message of Thy birth,
Who have winter, but no Christmas
Bringing them Thy peace on earth,
Send to these the joyful tidings;
By all people, in each home,
Be there heard the Christmas anthem;
Praise to God, the Christ has come!