Thought for Wednesday, 28 December

Luke 2: 13-15

Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel,

praising God and saying,

‘Glory to God in the highest heaven,
    and on earth peace to those on whom his favour rests.’

When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, ‘Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.’

 

The shepherds were so excited about the birth of Jesus they ran all around Bethlehem telling everyone about Him. Spreading the wonderful news about the angel choir bringing a message to them from God, telling them that God had sent His son to earth.

Wow! I wonder what we would have done if we had been visited by an angel choir, it must have been overwhelming for those uneducated shepherds, but they understood that the news needed to be shared. This wasn’t something to keep to themselves, it was something beyond them that everybody had to know about.

We send cards to let people know we are thinking about them but how many of these cards tell the story about the birth of our Saviour? In fact, so many people have decided not to send cards at all, instead they are gifting money to various charities. This is good in that the charity of choice is probably very grateful but how do they spread the joy of the birth of Jesus with the people they know?

Of course, you will always get an eejit like me. I sent my cards as usual, a bit earlier than usual because of strikes, two of them arrived back with me a few days later. I had put my own address on them. Now I admit I don’t get as many cards as I used to, but I would never have thought of bringing the numbers up again by sending them to myself.

I will of course give them a call after the new year just to let them know they are not forgotten but more to the point to let them know that I remember why we send cards. I send cards to remind people what we are celebrating. Nowadays people have parties just for the sake of it, they don’t need a reason for them, so the real impact of Christmas is overlooked by many people, just another excuse to carouse.

With so much upheaval in The Church of Scotland, some churches didn’t even have the usual services. If this is happening in churches what must strangers think of the way we celebrate the birth of our Saviour? Does it even matter?

So many folks got in touch with the Wrangholm FB page to find out the times of the Christmas Eve service and I had to tell them there wasn’t going to be one. Thankfully I, and others, managed to attend elsewhere.

How are we sharing the news of Jesus’ birth? This is the time to let people know the REAL reason for the season, let's not be remiss in this task. Even if it is just to remind our friends and family what they already know but have put on a back burner.

 

Prayer

Lord Jesus, please forgive us for not giving the importance to Your birth that it deserves. You should be our focus at this time but so many can think of nothing else but presents and food for friends and family. So many don’t even know that You are the reason we observe this day chosen to celebrate the fact that God sent You in human form to save our lives. Bless all those people who have still to hear about You and those of us struggling for words to tell them about the wonderful gift You are to us. We pray in Your wonderful name, amen.