Christmas Past
I
grew up in a large rambling house in God's own County of Yorkshire. Christmas
for me many years ago meant a coal fire in a big sitting room and letters up
the chimney to Father Christmas on Christmas Eve. Later we hung up empty pillow
cases at the end of the bed and waited snuggled under several blankets for
Christmas morning, knowing there would be frost on the inside of the windows!
The
scent of the Christmas Tree, the cold, the quiet, the roast turkey, and Christmas
pud with sixpences in it for Christmas dinner, using Great- Grandmother’s
cherry table cloth which came out once a year are all indelible memories of a
half-forgotten sheltered, but precious era.
Christmas Present
Today
it’s all different. Now, vicar of a Church in Chislehurst, I meet hundreds of
people in the week leading up to Christmas, including many who come to our
“Carols by Candlelight” or Christingle Service on Christmas Eve or Services on
Christmas Day. The contrast between the quiet family life of my childhood in
the north of England, and a “public” Christmas in a London Borough couldn’t be
greater. I often marvel at contrast, and the steps that have led me here.
Christmas Reality
It
all started in 1968 when after a short period of deliberate atheism, I became a
Christian. I experienced a profound change in heart and mind and, ever since,
Christmas has been different. For Christians believe that at the first
Christmas, God became Man and lived among us. Those few words sum up the Christian
Good News for me for God has revealed himself to us. There need be no vague
searching upwards, but simply a response to the baby of Bethlehem who became
the Saviour of the World, who lived and died and rose again to save us, and be
our friend. And in a world where there is so much suffering and sadness, so
much violence and destruction, that baby born in a stable in an obscure part of
the then known world, grew up identifying with us and dying for the world that
for the most part, still rejects him.
Christmas Day
A
small boy asked last Christmas why the baby in the crib was known by the same
word as his dad used when swearing! Sadly respect and honour for the Son of God
is less than ever in our own country, but Christmas is truly about the coming of
a Saviour, and he can bring meaning, purpose, direction and fulfilment in place
of emptiness in a mixed up world. And putting Jesus, the true “Christ” back
into Christmas makes that life-changing difference. May Christmas Day be His
day this year!
Canon Michael Adams
No comments:
Post a Comment