John's Christmas message 2020
Written by Rev'd John Poole | Dec 24th, 2020
This is one year we are all no doubt happy to see coming to an end. The Coronavirus pandemic has changed our lives in so many ways. For many it has been a time of great pain and sadness, of a sudden and strange illness and the tragic loss of loved ones. It has also created much fear, a ‘disease’ probably greater than the virus itself.
On the other hand, it may positively have made many of us more aware of the oneness we share with everyone else on this planet. If it has done anything to make us less selfish or self-centred and more loving and caring towards one another, then in spite of the tragedies, the heartaches and sorrows for many and the general upheaval for all of us, it will have at least done something to change the experience of life on this planet for the better.
Through this child and the man he became God came to break through into our disordered behaviours and bring us out of our isolation. From the vantage point of being human, one of us, he was and continues to be able to move us forward in the experience of being human. Through Jesus Christ we can let ourselves be touched and healed and changed, and discover the better life that God wants each of us to enjoy, and to enjoy it forever.
‘The symbol of Christmas – what is it?……..It is the brooding Presence of the Eternal Spirit making crooked paths straight, rough places smooth, tired hearts refreshed, dead hopes stir with newness of life. It is the promise of tomorrow at the close of every day, the movement of life in defiance of death, and the assurance that love is sturdier than hate, that right is more confident than wrong, that good is more permanent than evil.’ (Howard Thurman)
Christmas is with us once more and with it the annual retelling of the story of the birth of Jesus who brought hope to the world in the shape of the love of God, a God now completely ‘with us,’ but who asks us all to consider the lives we lead, not just at Christmas, but all through the year. Receiving the message of Christmas in your heart will lead you to understand that it is not just for Christmas, but for every day of your whole life.
Wishing you every blessing this Christmas and a bright and hopeful new year.
John.