26 December. Boxing Day. 10.15pm.
My first time to think. Not that I am complaining. Christmas spent with family, two great sons (parenthood – it just keeps on getting better 🙂 Hana and my wonderful parents. Then today spent with Hana volunteering for Crisis at Christmas. OK I could have done without driving 14 miles across London to give a homeless lady a drive of about 750 yards from the Centre where she was staying to the local hospital, but in that one act, was something of the spirit of Christmas or as we have been challenged to think – what #christmasmeans
Home happiness safety security reflection anxiety joy anticipation and thanksgiving. All statements of what #christmasmeans to me.
How good it was to watch Chief Scout “Bear” Grylls share his Christian faith with Stephen Fry and to hear Stephen’s respect for those who hold religious beliefs and how sad it is today to see the news of South Sudan and of the elbow wars which are the Boxing Day sales, seemingly attracting Chinese and Middle Eastern shoppers in their droves to the West End. How soon we forget what #christmasmeans and revert to the ‘normal’. And even on Christmas Day in Iraq, Christians were again slaughtered just for going to church. Can you quite imagine how that would feel “34 people killed in Farnham Surrey, as they leave Farnham Parish Church”. Somehow I think the reaction would be a little different. Yet what is the difference. Its just a simple difference of geography that I am living in the UK and not in Iraq today.. What will #christmasmean to the relatives of those 34 people? That is worth thinking about.
One of my happiest times was as a volunteer at the Corrymeela community. This remarkable place brought Catholics and Protestants together during the “troubles” and continues to be a centre for peace and reconciliation in Northern Ireland (if you are ever in those beautiful parts, I highly recommend a visit). http://www.corrymeela.org One of the most significant aspects of Corrymeela which volunteers and staff always draw attention to as guests prepare to leave are founder Ray Davey’s words, inscribed above the door of the community house
“Corrymeela starts when you get home”
Echoes there of a sermon I heard about preached by Revd David Cooper Padre of the Parachute regiment after the Falklands War. In a crowded Port Stanley Church he encouraged the men and women who had served in that conflict to “think on” ; remember who you were thinking about whilst you are under fire, if it was your dog, your children, your wife, or your God or any of them and when you get back to the UK, cherish them, build that relationship, don’t forget how important they were to you at your time of need.
And so for me too Christmas starts on Boxing Day. For if we truly believe that this is a festival worth celebrating. If we go to all that trouble (and believe me wrapping presents is a trouble as far as I am concerned) then surely what it all stands for whether family, faith or forgiveness, should be things we stand by for the rest of the year. And there is more than a little truth in that old Wizzard classic “well I wish it could be Christmas every day..” It can be. It should be. Not in terms of the presents the wrapping (please God no…) and then food. But in the way we treat people. In the way we respect our family. (Believe me this is me talking to me here…)
Find a place, make a promise, not a New Year’s promise that will be broken in days about a diet or change of habit or plan to spend less on the credit card, but a Christmas promise about a relationship, about something significant which you have reflected on or done something about this Christmas. Find a picture to remind you of that. #christmasmeans something more to me and to you. So “think on”..
Christmas starts on Boxing Day. #christmasmeans starting as you mean to go on.
andrewjohnston63 