From Tim Ormond Christmas 2008

Christmas

So, here we are once again with Christmas upon us and I am about to attend the funeral of an old friend in Ogbourne St. George and feel anything but festive. But I have been asked to do a Reading and the family have chosen Ecclesiastes chapter 3, verses 1 to 8. and as I prepare my spirits are lifted.

Why? Well the opening verses go ‘for everything its season, and for every activity under heaven its time: a time to be born and a time to die’. I cannot help but think of Jesus and realise that He could not have died if He had not lived. And so with my friend, I could not fully appreciate his life until he was no longer there – and yet his spirit lives on in my memories. Ecclesiastes goes on to say ‘a time to weep and a time to laugh; a time for mourning and a time for dancing ‘.

Christmas is a time for laughing and a time for dancing because it is a celebration of the birth of that child over two thousand years ago without which there could have been no Christian witness. There will be plenty of time for the mourning and for the weeping when we approach Good Friday knowing as we do just how much Jesus was prepared to sacrifice for us.

But now, as we contemplate Christmas Day, we can open our hearts and minds to the love of Christ. We can demonstrate our joy and our love in the giving and receiving of presents and in remembering those who will find it hard to celebrate this Christmas. This is a time for laughing and a time for dancing and despite the gloomy economic forecasts there is so much to be thankful for.

Come and join us in one of our many services of carols and celebrations and share in that mystical experience of the Crib and all it represents. See other articles published in the God Slot

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