We all hear people talking about Christmas – the
pressures, the expense, the nuisance of it all. We hear people
saying they wish it was all over. What an awful shame!
The Story of Christmas
Christmas is a time that we remember our Saviour’s birth.
It is a lovely story – the stable, the wise men, shepherds,
angels, etc. But it’s more than a lovely story. It’s
the beginning of our salvation. We celebrate Christmas by sending
cards and presents, meeting people that we might only meet once
a year, parties at work, celebrating with friends. We see children
and their raw excitement at everything. They can’t wait
for Christmas. What’s Santa going to bring? Maybe they
have little gifts for their parents that they are trying to keep
a secret.
We are in Advent now, preparing for Christmas.
It’s up
to us how we prepare and how we look forward. We can either moan
and groan about all the materialism, or we can look at it all
with new eyes, and remember what it is all about. Think of the
story of Scrooge (as described in Dickens’s A Christmas
Carol.)
Scrooge is an old man – a miser. He is the most unfriendly
man you could ever meet. He doesn’t want to risk anything
so he doesn’t get involved with anyone or anything. It’s
Christmas Eve, and Scrooge has all his workers on overtime. (And
they don’t get paid time and a half!) People are collecting
for charity, but obviously he won’t subscribe to any charity.
He feels that it’s people own fault that they are poor
and it’s tough really….
He allows his workers to take Christmas
Day off even though he can’t see what all the fuss is
about. He sees Christmas as a time when he loses money because
his office has to close.
He is invited to spend Christmas with his nephew, but declines!
I mean why be happy? He is by himself, and is visited by an old
friend, Marley, who has died. Marley has chains around him, and
tells Scrooge that the chains are a result of the way he lived
his life, never ever thinking about others. He tells Scrooge
that he will be visited by three spirits.
The first spirit comes and brings Scrooge back to his past.
We see him as a lonely child. (The psychologists would have a
filed day with his past!) We see how he falls in love but becomes
too obsessed with money to make a go of a relationship. As Scrooge
looks at his past he finds it very painful.
Then the second spirit comes and brings Scrooge to his present.
We see Scrooge looking through windows at people that he knows.
He hears them talking about him in unfavourable terms. And some
of his acquaintances even laugh at him! They play games that
make fun of him. And that can hurt.
Finally the third spirit comes and brings Scrooge to his future.
Scrooge sees his funeral and all the people are worried about,
is what they can rob from his house. There is no sad person.
His grave becomes completely overgrown because, basically, nobody
cares.
What a shock. Scrooge realises in time
that the way he lives now, and the way he has lived, affects
his eternal life – his
real future! He changes, and turns out to be the best helper
of people ever! A happy ending. (What a pity his name continues
to be associated only with his life before he changed!)
We have the chance to live positive lives. We can use Christmas
as a time to help others, a time to show our love and care for
people, a time to ponder the wonderful coming of our Saviour.
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