WORD OF THE WEEK
WHAT is Christmas all about? Trees, presents, Santa, fairy lights and more food than we could ever eat?
We all know Christmas is much more than any of that – but it’s so easy to be engulfed by the consumeristic culture that we see more and more over Christmas.
This Christmas will look a bit different for everyone. It’s been strange to see so many shops shut in the lead-up to December – how great it is that they have now been able to reopen. But Christmas is even about more than shopping!
Take yourself back to the very first Christmas. A young woman and her new husband looking for shelter in which they can safely bring their first baby into this world.
No family surrounding them, not the preparation that they were hoping for – no place, even, to lay the new born baby other than an animal’s feeding trough. It certainly looked very different than our Christmas’s today!
Maybe you are disappointed that this year your Christmas won’t be surrounded by friends and family. Maybe for Christmas, you are used to being on your own.
Whatever your situation, can I encourage you to think of the real reason for the joy of the season?
For many, Christmas has become about spending time with loved ones – but it has an even greater reason than that!
Christmas isn’t about us visiting others. Christmas is about God visiting us. Emmanuel – God with us.
So, this Christmas, whether you’re spending it alone or with a couple of other households, know that the real reason for celebration isn’t the people that we spend the season with – but the reason to celebrate can be found in the first line of a well-known carol “joy to the world, the Lord has come.”
God came to this broken world to bring peace, joy and hope.
This Christmas, could you give a few moments to considering the real reason for the celebration?
To considering what the hope of Emmanuel, God with us, can mean for you today?
Joy to the world – the Lord has come!