By Most Rev Bishop Christopher Saunders
They say you shouldn’t eavesdrop on other peoples’ conversations in case you don’t like what you hear! Recently, I was in an airport lounge and couldn’t help but hear a business executive talking on her mobile, an experience everyone else in the vicinity seemed to share.
She was complaining to a willing listener at the other end of the phone about her busy life and how stressed she was. And she added, just to make the point: “… and now to top it off, it won’t be long before Christmas will be rearing its ugly head”. I was astounded, shocked, in fact.
I had never heard the sacred event of Christmas referred to in such a manner and I moved to another part of the lounge, saddened by the bitterness of the words.
As I sat down, deep in thought, all of a sudden it was driven home to me just how strong secular views have become in our society. I wondered too about that person and what misery has possessed her life to the point where the drudgery of work had taken over and had become an end in itself.
Finally, resentment was now very much entrenched in a mantle of sadness. Surely God never intended us to live like that! Perhaps part of the marvel of Christmas is that it is a counter-sign to a culture like ours that is in serious transition, in turmoil, in fact.
In the wonderful story of Christmas, as told in Scripture, there is so much for us to take on board. Christmas pageants capture some of the drama and the charm of this blessed season of joy and hope. Like others, I am enthralled when children play out the parts of the Christmas event.
They seem to enter into it effortlessly and their smiles portray a happy understanding of that moment in time when God entered into human history in such a loving manner, offering a light of hope to a world lost in the darkness of despair.
It was then that a new Covenant between God and humankind was birthed, so to speak, in a stable in Bethlehem, to later find its completion on a cross and in the bodily resurrection of Christ.
We owe it to ourselves and to our families to see beyond the churlish efforts of the commercial world that seeks to secularise Christmas.
In what we say and do, we should not be content to see Christmas rendered devoid of its religious significance. We must, as a Christian people, recapture in our homes and in our lives the message that comes to us from a loving God, made evident in the birth of His son, born now for the salvation of us all.
As the Three Wise Men followed the star that led them to the birthplace of the Christ-child, so we need to continue on our life’s journey, content always to seek the company of God. Through the living Grace that comes to us in Christ, we remain confident of His endless love.
With Jesus by our side, we are inspired to live an authentic life, one marked by a sense of purpose and fulfilment. Let that be our Christmas prayer.
I take this opportunity to wish you and your family God’s choicest blessings this Christmas,