DECEMBER 2000

TEXT FOR THE MONTH:

“Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel,….“God with us”

Matthew 1 23

THOUGHT FOR THE MONTH

“When we realise that God loved us first, even before we loved him, we can only tear aside the veil under which we have been hiding. The day will come when each one of us will know and perhaps even say: ‘No, God did not go away. I was the one who was absent. God was with me all the time.”

Brother Roger of Taize

Dear Friends,

During my second curacy in Lancashire, I used occasionally to drive up to the Lake District on my day off for a walk in the hills. That was one of the privileges of living in the north. Quite often I would go to Grasmere, a place I’m sure many of you would know. I was always pleased to leave behind me the coaches full of tourists and climb the fells around that beautiful village. As I headed up a pass, and could see the far greater beauty of the hills, fields, steams and peaks, I often asked myself why there were relatively few walkers compared to the many tourists down in Grasmere. If it was up in fells that you could see the Lake District as it really is, what was the point of spending all your time in a shop buying pictures of it when (if you are fit and therefore have no excuse), you can climb the mountains and see the wonder of God’s creation itself!

Last Christmas I was reflecting on this thought when it came to me that so many people spend Christmas in exactly that way. We spend a lot of time shopping for Christmas, we like to relax and watch television at Christmas, we especially love to eat and drink well at Christmas, - but how many of us find out for ourselves the real beauty of Christmas, that is to say the spiritual meaning of Christmas. There is a possibility that we can be so busy preparing for Christmas and then clearing up afterwards that we miss the very meaning of Christmas itself – rather like busily shopping in Grasmere without actually spending some time exploring the real beauty all around.

Of course, for many people the real meaning of Christmas is difficult to comprehend, because it is just too incredible to take in. God, we believe, took human form as Christ, and came to live with us. Jesus, God’s Son, was not just a prophet and a healer. He was ‘Immanuel’, meaning ‘God with us’. That means that God decided to identify with us in full, to share his glory with us, to come alongside us in all our joys and sorrows. In turn that means that God is with us in our everyday life. God is with us when we rise and when we rest, when we go out and when we come in; and because He has come in the person of His Son Jesus, He knows exactly what we are all going through because He has been through it all too, both good and bad. Many people have found meditating on this thought in a time of crisis or pain particularly helpful.

Thank you Lord for coming to us and sharing Your life with us. Help us to know that you are with us every day, and that you know exactly what we experience in our lives.

A Very Happy Christmas and many blessings to you for the New Year

Yours in Christ

Simon Tillotson

This letter appears in the parish magazine. To subscribe to the magazine please email Brian Eddy or contact the church office.

Past Thoughts

November 2000