How can it be that one of the most exciting joyful times of the year can turn out to be one of the
most stressful? And how can we be aware of this and yet still arrive at that same spot year after
year? How is it that we can begin Advent with such heavily laden expectations and reach the 24th
December overburdened and weary? How can Christmas be about love and yet at times leave us
feeling so empty?
This year around the beginning of November I was tempted by a good deal in small, rectangular
packing boxes for Christmas presents. I bought (too many) and spent subsequent weeks looking
for small,flat,rectangular presents that would fit. It strikes me as a metaphor for Christmas itself, we
are often tempted by all the lovely packaging but struggle to find what lies at the heart of
Christmas.
Maybe we need to begin the other way round.
Christmas is about love. Love came down at Christmas. God loved us so much he sent his Son to
live among us and to show us what that love meant. And it isn't restricted to 2000 years ago, he
still loves us,he still wants us to know that love; to accept the gift of it,the gift that is there for
anyone,given unconditionally, the gift that does not ask us to strive or work or earn it.
Maybe its time to do things differently this Christmas, to do less and be around more, to spend less
and enjoy the simpler things, to eat less but take more time and make each meal special, to worry
less and tolerate more, to turn from ourselves and be there for others, to seek out those who have
less, those who are lonely, and, in being there for them, find more than we can imagine.
The Christmas story has travelled through the ages, Mary and Joseph and the donkey travelling to
Bethlehem, a young girl giving birth to a baby in a stable - a baby who brings with him God’s love
for his people.This year we are bringing a live nativity to Great Dunmow on Sunday 6 December
where Mary and Joseph will travel once again and arrive at the stable outside St Mary’s Church.
Why not come and be part of this story this year, concentrate on the gift and not the glitter, take the
journey and see what happened at Bethlehem, maybe its time to do things differently.
“Love came down at Christmas
Love all lovely, love divine
Love was born at Christmas
Star and angels gave the sign.”
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