Christmas cheer

  How are you approaching Christmas this year?  While most of us, I expect, will be thinking about card and letter writing, and making arrangements to visit or be visited, the way in which each of us approaches Christmas depends upon who we are and on our experiences and circumstances of life.

  If we are young - in heart as well as age - we approach Christmas with a sense of anticipation and excitement.  As Christmas comes, so does the round of parties, Christmas performances and the promise of those presents on Christmas morning!

  If we are a parent, however, our view of Christmas might well be one of excitement, but tempered with a concern for the state of our post-Christmas bank balances!

  For those who work in shops and those who own the shops, Christmas can mean long hours, sore feet, the promise of a brief rest before the start of the sales and the difference between a good financial year and a poor one.

  Others will be remembering what Christmas used to be like, when you were younger and life was different.  Christmas becomes a time of memories.

  All of which makes me ponder on how those who were present at the birth of Jesus saw it from their own particular perspectives.  For the shepherds, it was a moment of indescribable beauty and joy filled with light and sound as they witnessed the angel choir contrasting with the gentle breathing of the child in the manager.  For the men from the east, it was a moment of fulfilment.  All of their patient study of the sky was vindicated and their long journey was proved worthwhile.  A new King had been born, just as they had thought.

  For King Herod, the birth of Jesus spelt danger and threatened his position of power and control.  This threat required a quick and brutal response in order for Herod to protect himself.

  But what of God's perspective?  As he sent his only son into the struggles and toil of humanity, what was his feeling?  It was with an overwhelming sense of love and compassion for his people that God the Father reached down to us in sending his son, Jesus Christ.  In Jesus, he wants us to see his love in action.  He provides hope for the world in Jesus' message of healing, peace and reconciliation.  In Jesus, he gives us his gift of forgiveness, mercy and love as the child in the manger grows to be the man on the cross who pays the price for the sins of the world.

  God's perspective on Christmas is the desire to bring the world back into union with himself.

  Whoever we are, wherever we are, may we see Christmas through God's perspective this year and accept all that he offers to us through the birth of Jesus this Christmas time.

by Graham Clarke.