[Faith-talk] Good Night Message for Tuesday, December 25 2012

[Paul]

Hello and good morning, afternoon or evening wherever you live.  In most of the world, today is known in most English-speaking countries as "Boxing Day," the day on which one returns a gift to the store because it's the wrong size, wrong color or even the wrong gift itself or one that was not wanted.  (Don't tell the giver you're returning it to the store, please). As for me, the best gifts I've received, apart from knowing my Lord and Savior in a more deeper and personal way, are the few new friends I've made on another chat site on the Internet, not to mention those I already have, whether online in voice chats, via emails or even on telephone chat lines.

D. Bruce Lockerbie, continuing the Christmas theme articles, addresses an interesting question with his thought-provoking article entitled "When Your Children Ask, Why Do We have Christmas? appearing in a magazine called Psychology For Living and rendered as follows:

Today is a day for Light and Joy and Hope. We call it Christmas Day. Whatever we know about mystery, myth and magic can all come true, all in one glorious day.

Christmas Day means LIGHT. That's why we have decorated our house with shimmering strands of colored lights with festive candles. We live the greater part of the year in a gloom of our own making, caused by selfishness, greed and pride; by bigotry, quareling and war.  We stumble through our nights in search of some guiding principle, some means to end our confusion and blindness.

But just at the darkest time of year, scintillation--brittle, distant--of an almost-forgotten star breaks through the murk. Its beam grows to a brilliance, and suddenly we have seen a great light.

Christmas Day also means JOY, the joy of realization of fulfillment, of reunion, and the exchange of love tokens. That's why we have made such an effort to bring our family together for this one day in the year.

We'll gather first around the Christmas tree, brought into the house as a double symbol of joy, a reminder both of Eden's tree of life, in which we all share, and also of Calvary's tree of death that brings new life to all who believe.

When the family, from eldest to youngest, sits down at the dinner table, we'll celebrate with thanksgiving a meal offered as a gesture of love.

Christmas Day means HOPE, for on this day the unknown becomes known. We experience just enough of the deepest mystery of our existence, the fact that God cares enough to become one of us, to assure us of the future. That's why we sing about "Peace on Earth," even though battles are still being fought; that's why, in spite of cruelty and poverty, we hail the coming of the Prince of Peace.

Today is Christmas Day, but the Baby in the stable, for all the lovely sentiment of greeting cards and carols, means nothing unless we're ready to share His mission and enlarge the message of Christmas.

The greatest gift your mother and I can wish for you this Christmas is the gift of a loving concern for others, that we may all come to know, in a lasting way, the Light, Joy and Hope of the Gospel, the real substance of Christmas.

And there you have Mr. Lockerbie's article.  I think it somewhat ironic that his last name is associated with a Scottish village, Lockerbie, in which a Pan Am flight broke up.  Oh well, stranger ironies have happened.

And now may the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob just keep us safe, individually and collectively, throughout this night or day and especially in these last days in which we live.  Your Christian friend and brother, Paul