I love Christmas. I expect most of you do too. Sometimes I think it's the only thing that keeps us going as we head full-speed into Winter! But do you ever get that niggling feeling around Christmas-time that something just isn't right?
I'm not talking about the commercialisation of Christmas (I could do, but who can argue with those coke adverts anyway?), I'm talking about that sinking feeling that maybe you're not quite as happy as you should be...
We do generally expect to be happy at Christmas. We're off work, we've spent a lot of time and money making everything festive and pleasant and we're looking forward to a celebration. But for whatever reason, that expectation or that pressure to 'be joyful' can sometimes get to you.
I wonder what your reasons might be for having that niggling, low feeling this year. Maybe it's the absence of a loved one, or having Christmas in a different place. Maybe it's that a few days of Christmas can't quite block out the difficulty in the rest of your life. Or maybe it's just the fact that as an adult, it's never quite as euphoric as you remember it in your childhood!
Really Christmas is a celebration of God coming to Earth. So if Christmas is difficult for you, then perhaps you can just pick out 1 or 2 things in all the Christmassy chaos as a reminder that, because you will always be loved by God, you still have hope and you can still carry on. A candle in the dark – a small but definite symbol of hope in dark times. Children enjoying their presents - a sure reminder that there is still happiness and innocence and good in life.
We believe there will always be hope and goodness in the world because Jesus came to Earth and his spirit is still with us, a spirit of good, if we care to listen to it. When life is hard, remember God, the one constant good, the one person who the world can never take away from you.
Even if everything else seems to offer small consolation or cheer at Christmas, the one hope you can depend on forever, is Christ.
No comments:
Post a Comment