dec 06c

Thoughts on Christmas

I met somebody the other day who told me that they had finished all their Christmas shopping by the end of August. I don't know about you but this is something I've never even considered achieving although I must admit to a tinge of envy when it made me think about what lies ahead.

Many is the Christmas Eve I've spent wandering round Glasgow realising I could not afford to go home empty handed and also realising I hadn't the slightest idea what I was looking for -a desperate feeling indeed! I suppose the purpose of these last minute assaults on the shops is to make a purchase that will enable those closest to you appreciate the 'thought' that has gone into the selection of their present. Unfortunately the pressure of seeing shops closing up when you still haven't procured the said item can affect the decision making process to a greater or lesser degree (mostly greater I fear).

I would cite two actual examples when 'friends' of mine stood by expectantly when their better halves carefully unwrapped the present from the special person in their lives. The first example consisted of a windscreen scraper that could plug into the lighter socket in a car thus heating up and making the process of scraping the ice off car windows that bit easier. The second example was a hurriedly wrapped African violet pot plant in full flower. In both these instances, my friends experienced a more peaceful Christmas than they could ever have imagined. In addition to a silent night on Christmas Eve, they also had a silent morning, a silent afternoon and a silent evening on Christmas Day, Boxing Day and quite a few days thereafter.

Throughout December, all the shops become extremely busy and everyone puts in additional hours getting parked, waiting on buses, standing in queues etc. All this made me think a little about what the Minister was talking about in his second service at the Kirk when he used some simple arithmetic to illustrate how God's love can be increased by giving it to others, so I have come up with the following example:

- If we spend 1 hour at Church each week and don't do anything else in terms of reading our Bibles and coming to God in prayer, this equates to just over 8 minutes per day on average.

- If we sleep for 7 hours, that leaves us 17 hours per day that we are awake.
- There are 1020 minutes in 17 hours.

- If a minute was worth a penny, we would have £10.20 worth of time to spend each day. Out of this, we would set aside just over 8p for the Lord.

- Each year we would receive £3,712.80 (52 x £71.40) and give back £29.12 (56p x 52).

- At this time of year in particular, should we not be asking ourselves if this is really enough?

To be honest, I'm not sure how effective the above example is but maybe it's OK if you like doing arithmetic.

The purpose of showing this example is to illustrate in some way how little we give back to the Lord in relative terms when he gave us everything he possibly could.

At this time of year we give a lot more time to shopping etc but under all the tinsel and coloured lights, it is a special and meaningful time in the Christian calendar which should be given due regard by all those who are believers.

I keep feeling drawn to the profound words at the very beginning of John's Gospel which emphasise the real importance and scale of what happened on that first Christmas morning and leave us in no doubt who this child was. (from the New Living Translation).

The following passage comes from John Chapter One:

'In the beginning the Word already existed. He was with God, and he was God. He was in the beginning with God. He created everything there is. Nothing exists that he didn't make. Life itself was in him, and this life gives light to everyone. The light shines through the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it.

God sent John the Baptist to tell everyone about the light so that everyone might believe because of his testimony. John himself was not the light; he was only a witness to the light. The one who is the true light, who gives light to everyone, was going to come into the world.

But although the world was made through him, the world didn't recognise him when he came. Even in his own land and among his own people, he was not accepted. But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. They are reborn! This is not a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan. This rebirth comes from God.

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