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Dear Friends,
Firstly, I would like to thank you all for your welcome and your support as I settle into life in Holytown and New Stevenston. The warmth of your welcome and your encouraging support have certainly meant a lot to me and have been smoothing my path as I begin my ministry with, and among, you all. So a very sincere 'thank you' from me!
Now early last week I opened an e-mail from a friend to find that she was having a rant about being unable to get suitable stamps to put on her Christmas cards yet again this year!
Once I had got over the initial shock of her being so organised for Christmas - so early - I realised that yet again the true message of Christmas was being somehow sidelined by the Post Office and immediately began to rant myself!
I don't know if you are aware but last year when the Post Office produced their Christmas stamps they produced two different forms - Sacred and Secular.
However, if you went along and asked for some stamps you would always be offered the secular ones unless you particularly asked for the Religious ones.
It seems also that counter staff were being asked to log the number of Religious stamps they sold with a view, no doubt, to showing that there was no demand for them and therefore perhaps in future to stop producing them.
So having received this e-mail I immediately went off to put the theory to the test again this year and went to buy some stamps for my Christmas cards.
As expected when I asked for them I was offered the Secular variety showing Genies and ugly Sisters, so I asked if they had any sacred ones this year and was met with a rather strange look!
However, having rummaged through her book several times the assistant eventually found what I was looking for but then had to confess that she only had a limited amount and not as many as I wished.
Needless to say I bought them and went off to another Post Office to try again!
Here the pattern was repeated - not once more but twice more until eventually I got the amount I desired!
Now stamps may seem a trivial issue in the larger scheme of things but all these little secular things mount up and eventually detract from the real message of Christmas. A message we should be eager to share - a message which gives the wonderful news that God's Son was born for us!
Immanuel - God with us!
Christmas is a Christian Festival - a sacred time - so let's try and make it that in any way we can. Be that by sharing the good news with others through cards with a Christian message and image or through the simple use of a Religious stamp on the envelope or a random act of kindness.
If we as Christians don't continue to be different in the world at this time of year and share the Good News then the Christmas message may become even more secularised.
Let me know how you get on if you decide to seek out the religious stamps!
On a personal note may Graham and I send you our good wishes for a joyful and peaceful Christmas and wish you every blessing in the coming year.
Caryl
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