BBC Radio Leicester
Thought for the Day
© John Denney 24 December 2003
Is it me, or has Christmas arrived with a rush this year? I’ve only just got over Guy Fawkes. Anyway, apart from picking up the turkey from
the butcher’s, getting the veg. ready and making breadcrumbs for the Bread
Sauce, we’re all ready for the Big Day.
Even my presents are wrapped up – in several unnecessary acres of
wrapping paper and many metres of sticky tape.
How do women wrap odd-shaped things
so exquisitely with just a piece of paper the size of a postage stamp and a
piece of ribbon?
Around now, you always get some killjoy complaining in the papers
or in a phone-in, that 25th December was hijacked by the Christians
and that Jesus wasn’t actually born on that day. OK. We
admit it. It’s true. There was a big controversy in the church about
1700 years ago. Some said we ought to
celebrate Jesus’ birth. After all, it
was the single most important event in history.
Others said we shouldn’t
celebrate His birthday, because every
day was a day for celebration, and in any case, there were no records of which
day He was actually born. In the end,
everyone agreed that the darkest midwinter days of the year in Christendom
needed brightening up. So they took over
the old pagan winter festivals, and added something in that the pagans didn’t
have. You remember that the wise men
gave gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh to the infant Jesus. Christians started to give each other small Christmas
presents, following the example of the wise men.
Christmas is the single most important event in history because
it celebrates the day when Jesus stepped out of the glory of heaven and was
born as a human baby. He did this to
show us what God is like, and to offer us an escape route from the prison of
our wrong attitudes and wrong actions.
No wonder that the angel announced Jesus’ birth to some shepherds with
the remark, “I bring you good news of
great joy that will be for all the people.”
Great Joy. Listen
for the Joy in the carols we’re hearing and singing. Look
for the Joy on the faces of little children.
And maybe experience the Joy
of joining with others to worship Christ, the new-born King, at a church near
you today and tomorrow. Let no one take
that Joy from you. Have a happy and
blessed Christmas.