CHRISTMAS

Here we are back in the last month of the year.A year of much suffering and change for many of us.

As we enter into the Christmas season I find myself reflecting on the words ‘trapped’ and ‘Christmas’ .So much of the past months has been spent ‘trapped’ in a variety of ways, in our homes, inside ourselves, in our fears and anxiety, in our aloneness or loneliness, and in our mourning for things which we consider ‘normal’ .

Recently I heard that a young friend of mine was acquiring a hamster for Christmas, even though I love most animals I found myself nauseated that she was going to have a member of the rodent species in her home, and in these months of pandemic I also felt concern that such an animal with its potential to spread germs would now be a member of her family. How silly you might say! it’s only a cute wee hampster, be that as it may be my reflections moved on to consider very positive learning from this little creature and I began to feel sympathy, and even nausea at the practice of keeping this creature in a cage. As the picture continued to emerge I found myself absorbed in the hampster’s habit of racing round and round on it’s wheel, which apparently it does this as it needs cardiovascular excercise, or it may be getting sick. It seems to me that this is like many of us in these last months ‘trapped’ by necessary restrictions we may as well have been locked in a cage, but the difference is we can get out both mentally and physically if we try.

This brings me to Christmas which has become steeped in materialism and traditions that during my lifetime have become increasingly secular and ingrained in our cultural norms and mores.It has become difficult to escape them but often a good practice is to go back and establish the real reason for Christmas or Christ-mass which although Christians use this day to celebrate the birth of Christ, the 25th of December is really a festival around a way of life. Christians often feel like wrapping up Christmas to keep it safe but in fact it is a vibrant and meaningful way of life that is not restricted to one day.

It is fair to say that ‘end of year’ celebrations’ have, in the past, had their origins in other philosophies including Pagan rituals, and I am aware that as our world has become larger and yet more like a village folk have become more scared and gone into ‘holes ‘in a variety of ways ,and the 25th of December as become simply a holiday a chance for a blow out , or maybe a chance to drink like a skunk.

In our multinational world we have had to learn to respect others ideologies and religious practices, but it is still important to stand firm in what Christmas means to practising Christians and which , I believe, has a clear positive message for all of us For us Christ’s birth was ‘The Incarnation’ the embodiment of God with all his qualities in human flesh ‘Go back to living Christmas each and every day’ , and just as Christ did create a safe space for the celebrations, remember………

EVERY DAY IS CHRISTMAS SO YOU CAN CREATE A SPACE FOR THE LOVE AND COMPASSION IT BRINGS AT ANY TIME YOU AND I CAN CREATE A ‘GOD SPACE’.