- Church Street
- Woodnesborough
- Sandwich
- Kent
- CT13 0NW
News Letter
December/January 2010/11.
So, we’re under starter’s orders for Christmas – and that probably means a whole stack of preparations for the big day. Christmas can be a fraught time, with pressure to do everything right, to conform to the standard expectations and to please everyone all of the time. It’s no wonder it can be stressful. Not least amongst the business is the question of what presents to give people. What we give is a reflection of who we are. Do we give gifts that are practical, ornamental, expensive, extravagant, modest, planned months in advance or last minute, wanted or needed? And of course the gifts we receive are also a reflection of how people perceive us – “do they really see me that way?”
All this is true of God, too, in the gifts he has for us. Whatever gifts we have in mind to give this year, we can be sure that God’s gift to us is greater than we are going to give anyone. The gift of himself in the form of a baby who is the Saviour of the World has to be the ultimate present. This gift is planned, costly, needed, practical, and sometimes even wanted! It is a gift uniquely suited to each of us and to all of us, and is a true gift with no strings attached. In all the bustle of Christmas it is easy to miss this message of the angels. I think this is because we underestimate the extravagance of God’s gift – it comes in such a small package, so to speak. We all know about babies, we all were one, once! And a baby is, after all, very small and in some ways so commonplace.
Looking beyond Christmas into January, we have to think about how we use the gifts into the New Year and beyond. I suppose part of this is about the dreaded New Year resolutions, deciding how to use the gifts of our own character (the only I have ever kept is the one to make no more!), but part of it is also about deciding what to do with the gifts we have been given for Christmas: cherish them, use them, develop them, ignore them? So it is with the gift of the news of God in Christ that the angels bring and to which the shepherds bear witness – what do we do with that?
So, I hope that our Christmas preparations include hearing the Christmas story in some way, and that we can return to it again once the excitement has died down and visit the Christ child along with the wise men into the new year.
With every blessing,
Rev Daniel Harrison, Vicar.