Holidays
Have you ever missed Christmas? I don’t mean forgetting the dates. Our parents and Sunday school teachers did a wonderful job in instilling those dates deep into our conscience. I mean waking up on the 27th and asking yourself what the commotion on the past two days was all about!
Christmas, like Easter is very easy to miss. I missed my Easter last year. I had travelled to the rural village a day before the holidays, loaded with a whole package of solar lighting fittings. In my excitement to light up our homestead and prove to my mother that I was such a wonderful and caring daughter I quickly went about organising for someone to handle the connections.
There was a handyman who did odd jobs and lived a couple of miles from our village. Early Friday morning I woke up and drove to pick him up. In two hours he was done with my connections plus the usual neighbourly chit chat over a cup of tea. I drove him back to his village. On my way back home, at around 11am, the narrow road was suddenly flooded by a procession of Roman Catholic believers. They were carrying their mini crosses and singing very solemnly. This was a commemoration of the crucifixion of our Lord Jesus Christ. Suddenly it hit me; this was Easter and alas, in all my rushing up and down the road I had forgotten about it.
At that particular point I felt like the disciple Peter. I had forsaken the One person who ever gave His life up for me. As I held on to my stirring wheel, with my foot on the brake to allow the church procession to pass, I felt so much shame. What was I doing on the road on a day like this? I was a Christian of many years; but on this day I was at the wrong place and doing the wrong thing altogether. I had missed Easter!
This is not uniquely my spot alone. You could miss Christmas too. By not keeping your mind focused on the One Person most important at Christmas you could miss it altogether.
The two gentlemen walking to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-34) nearly missed Jesus who was walking right alongside them. They were busy talking and pitifully wallowing over the events leading to his death. Their minds and conversation were focused on who Jesus was before he died - the man from Nazareth, instead of who he had said he would be – the King and Messiah of all nations. Had Jesus not spoken to them and revealed himself they would have gone on into Emmaus still enveloped in their confusion and ignorance.
We stand to lose a lot by not paying careful attention to details. Like a young man who went fishing with his uncle, an event he had been looking forward to for days. As he got the hang of what fishing was all about, he suddenly surprised everyone and himself by catching his first fish. But while the fish was still in the net by the water, he turned around and called out to his friends to come and have a look at his catch. That momentary side look was all the fish needed to dive back into the water and swim away from its captor.
Or in the case of a young lady who was so sure she had finally met the man of her dreams. But unfortunately she would not let go of her other boyfriends, and only to lose her lucky catch.
I am saddened when we attend conferences and participants refuse to heed to the call by preachers to take some time alone to reflect on the messages preached. That time of reflection is for most participants a time to go shopping! The local church has little success in this area of reflection time too, as parishioners are always rushing out to feed their grumbling stomachs.
All humanity and creation is centered around the birth of Jesus Christ. He came to this world for us and we must not miss the meaning of Christmas. Jesus was not just passing through our world or visiting; but he came to us so that we may experience a new beginning, so that we may have hope and so that we will experience peace and joy even while living in a troubled world. No, we must not miss Christmas by not paying attention to the events which brought us the King of Kings, our Redeemer and the Rock of our salvation.
A Song of Praise
In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah:
We have a strong city;
God makes salvation
its walls and ramparts.
2 Open the gates
that the righteous nation may enter,
the nation that keeps faith.
3 You will keep in perfect peace
those whose minds are steadfast,
because they trust in you.
Isaiah 26:1-3
http://agiema.blogspot.com/2014/12/have-you-ever-missed-christmas.html
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