Categories: uncategorized
Date: 24 December 2008 11:36:25
I doubt we'll be on the computer tomorrow, so I take this opportunity to wish you all a really lovely Christmas and to thank you, too, for your amazing support for us through all the traumas (and delights, she says, as she hears frantic squeaking from the far corner of the room!) of this year.
Two years someone said to me that Christmas was the worst possible time for my dad to die. But what better time? The message of Christmas is that God loved us far too much to allow death to be the end. The promise of eternal life is never stronger than at Christmas or at Easter. If that baby hadn't been born in Bethlehem, then there'd have been more need to mourn the loss of my Dad.
That hope and promise is just as important to me today. The birth of Christ was a clear signal from God that we are not alone, even in our darkest hour. That He loves and cares so much for us that He was willing to take on tremendous suffering in order to bring us into the light.
Though not a Catholic, I think often of Mary at Christmas - in fact, ever since taking on the role of Mary for the nativity play on Ship of Fools I've felt a strong empathy. When you adopt a child, you're told that it's not going to be easy, that there'll be heartache and trauma - Mary knew that too when she accepted God's will for her, and more so by far than what we're going through. It's a scary thing to say to God "I trust you. I will do what you ask of me". Yet Mary did it, and at such an early age too. A single mother for a time, too.
The worries of tomorrow will wait until the time is right, and I have to trust that God will be there by my side every step of the way as I make decisions and wait for decisions to be made which will affect my life and the lives of those I love. But for the moment there is only one thing of importance. The birth of a Saviour.