December/January letter

Happy Christmas everybody                                                                      

and may your New Year be filled with hope and peace

As Christmas sneaks up on us yet again, and the old year creeps to its end I hope most of us can look back on a year that has brought us good things and a Christmas season of great joy. Sadly, this won’t be the case for everyone, and this time of year can be a really difficult time for some people. Perhaps because there are memories of a past Christmas that was painful, perhaps because all the jolliness reminds us that our lives are not as love-filled as we would like. Perhaps we simply find the seasonal excesses rather disturbing or – most likely in today’s climate – we may simply be worried that we won’t be able to pay the credit card bills that come our way in the New Year’s post.

If you’re lucky enough to be one of those for whom Christmas is something really special – a time to enjoy the company of friends and family, to share gifts and the party spirit, then please don’t forget the others for whom this is not the case, and perhaps think about ways in which you could spread your happiness around a little.  I have a friend who has always made me feel guilty because he and the family spend at least one day over the Christmas period serving hot dinners to homeless people at a Mission in East London. I have always thought of it as a great sacrifice on his part, but he reassures me it’s often the day they all look forward to the most, for the gift it gives them each year. Let me assure you that I still haven’t managed to do anything like that – but I can keep aspiring to be better.

Perhaps the best many of us can expect of ourselves is to keep our temper with our loved ones, NOT to overdo the wine or the chocolates, and to spend at least some time with a friend or family member we’re not that fond of, making them feel loved and wanted. God’s gift to us is given freely every day of the year, every second of the day, and Christmas is a great time to remember it and rejoice, and to think about how we can offer something in response.

For Mary and Joseph that baby was a very mixed blessing – disgracefully pregnant before the marriage had been finalised; forcing them to flee to foreign parts; bringing heartache and anxiety for most of their son’s short life. Yet what a blessing to the world! Let us, like Mary when she heard the news, say “Yes” to whatever duty we are called to shoulder. Let us, like the angels, sing “Glory to God in the highest”. Let us, like the shepherds, tell others about this wondrous Good News. And let us, like the wise men, bring gifts – not just to the stable door, but to all those whom we meet – gifts of thoughtfulness and care, of attention and loving-kindness.

With love and every blessing for the New Year ahead - Gail