Reflection, a thought for the month

The Message of Christmas

November 21st, 2009

The scene was a busy London street – all the Christmas decorations glowing, the pavements full of shoppers, the windows full of exciting Christmas goodies and presents and delights.

Outside one shop a small boy, very unhappy; tears coursed down his little cheeks and although bravely he tried to keep his emotions in check, his whole small frame shook with ill-controlled sobs.
Several good people had clustered round him; one motherly lady was doing her best to find out what was wrong.  She bent over the small boy, her face serious as she patted his shaking shoulders and asked, ‘What’s the matter?’  ‘I’ve lost my Daddy,’ he whimpered.

He looked terribly forlorn and the sympathy of the little group round him was obvious.  The brightness and gaiety of the Christmas decorations made his plight all the more depressing.  For him, all was dark and insecure.

Suddenly, pushing his way through the little crowd, came the father – as the boy saw him his face lit up, and like sunshine after a storm, all was well.  The boy’s eyes shone like stars, his tears vanished like magic and a great grin of relief and happiness swept over his face.

Darkness and insecurity, sorrow and sadness arise so often from the absence of the one thing that makes life worth living – love.  Love in whatever form it may take – and it takes many forms, some lovely, some strange, some very usual, some different.  But human beings must love and be loved if they are to remain human.  It’s love that makes the world go round – as the songwriters and poets tell us in their various ways.

Without God’s love we human beings are in the dark and insecure.  Suppose that little boy’s father had never come back – what a tragedy that would have been for him.  If God had never come into our world what a calamity it would have been for us.  Human existence would have been wrapped in mystery – darkness would have been the condition of the human race.

Our joy is in the fact that we know that ‘God so loved the world that he sent his Son’ into our world to shed his light amid the darkness – a light that would never be overcome by the darkness.  God gives us security and peace by that sending of his Son, which we celebrate at Christmas-tide; and it is for us to spread the message of love among our fellow human beings.  At Christmas we rejoice as we contemplate this immense act of love; as we think of that child in a manger who is love itself.  Here is the Son of God, a child completely human, whose heart is love, sent to love us, and in and through that human love lead us to a love that is infinite and divine.

Happy Christmas!
Tony Willis

 

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