“Be still, and know that I am God.” (Psalms 46:10)
This call radiates from the crib in ways more easily grasped by the wonder-filled minds of the children we bring to it than by ourselves.
Regardless of our own beliefs and doubts, our picking and choosing, and our denominational differences, all Christians are united in both the magnitude and the simplicity of the event we celebrate today: the birth of Jesus.
The world has its own take on Christmas; we all know that; and in the moments when we are able to brush aside the indecency, the absurdity and the immorality of the commercial pressures behind the Christless clamour and glitter of the weeks over which the festivities are spread, we can all acknowledge the enjoyment that is part of the whole experience, but this is Christmas. It is nothing if not the celebration of Christ’s birth. This is where Christianity began; this is where the idea of Christian unity had not even been formulated because there was, and never had been, any disunity.
Within our hearts we can all return to that beautiful simplicity of togetherness in trust and belief over this Christmas period. We can return to our long-lost presence as children before the infant Jesus in His crib. We can simply be still: we can stop and listen: hearken, watch and pray. We can allow the Spirit of God to speak into our deepest selves.
This is where our future unity can begin; where our faith in Jesus Christ began.
There are ways in which we seem to be too far gone and too far apart for it to come about in any other way; and seeming to be forever apart quickly hardens into a firmly held but mistaken belief that this really is the case.
Let us follow Mary’s example of humility and abandonment into the hands of God.
She laid aside her anxieties and rested in a peace born of complete trust in Him.
When the angel Gabriel spoke to her, at first ‘She was deeply disturbed by these words and asked herself what this greeting could mean’ (Luke 1:29) but her acceptance resulted in altogether different feelings: ‘My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour;’(1:46,47)
Later, after The birth of Jesus, ‘she treasured all these things and pondered them in her heart.’ (2:19)
We are called to put the same degree of trust in God’s provision for us; to place ourselves in His hands as completely as He placed Jesus into the hands of Mary.
Regardless of our own beliefs and doubts, our picking and choosing, and our denominational differences, all Christians are united in both the magnitude and the simplicity of the event we celebrate today: the birth of Jesus.
The world has its own take on Christmas; we all know that; and in the moments when we are able to brush aside the indecency, the absurdity and the immorality of the commercial pressures behind the Christless clamour and glitter of the weeks over which the festivities are spread, we can all acknowledge the enjoyment that is part of the whole experience, but this is Christmas. It is nothing if not the celebration of Christ’s birth. This is where Christianity began; this is where the idea of Christian unity had not even been formulated because there was, and never had been, any disunity.
Within our hearts we can all return to that beautiful simplicity of togetherness in trust and belief over this Christmas period. We can return to our long-lost presence as children before the infant Jesus in His crib. We can simply be still: we can stop and listen: hearken, watch and pray. We can allow the Spirit of God to speak into our deepest selves.
This is where our future unity can begin; where our faith in Jesus Christ began.
There are ways in which we seem to be too far gone and too far apart for it to come about in any other way; and seeming to be forever apart quickly hardens into a firmly held but mistaken belief that this really is the case.
Let us follow Mary’s example of humility and abandonment into the hands of God.
She laid aside her anxieties and rested in a peace born of complete trust in Him.
When the angel Gabriel spoke to her, at first ‘She was deeply disturbed by these words and asked herself what this greeting could mean’ (Luke 1:29) but her acceptance resulted in altogether different feelings: ‘My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour;’(1:46,47)
Later, after The birth of Jesus, ‘she treasured all these things and pondered them in her heart.’ (2:19)
We are called to put the same degree of trust in God’s provision for us; to place ourselves in His hands as completely as He placed Jesus into the hands of Mary.
‘I hold myself in quiet and silence,
like a little child in its mother’s arms,
like a little child, so I keep myself.'
(Psalms 131:2)
A joyful, peaceful and wonder-filled Christmas to everyone.
