December 2014 – Christmas Greetings
Christmas 2014 and what a wonderful time of the year. I love the sounds of Christmas with the songs of fantasy for children and the carols that remind us of the true message of Christmas.
Ones imagination can really run wild at Christmas, especially when grandchildren are around.
My imagination got the better of me this year, so with a little bit of help from my IT savvy grandson Harry, I create this fantasy video that is almost real.
You don’t have to believe it but you can enjoy it.
You know Christmas is all about memories too. I remember when I was a boy growing up in India how my missionary parents would take the time to create a beautiful Christmas memory for us kids.
So without trying to be biased I just had to make a montage of pictures of our grandchildren growing up through the years. Here is a brief look if you can spare a few minutes.
The western world has commercialised Christmas to such a degree that our culture has almost swallowed up in the glitz and fantasy of the season to the point of even debating whether we should call it “Christmas”or not!
In America a once bastion of Christian tradition, I believe it is now increasingly becoming ‘politically correct’ to call it “Happy Holiday” instead of “Happy Christmas”.
I’m sure glad secular Australia hasn’t as yet bowed to that nonsense.
In fact I am looking forward to viewing Carols by Candle Light at the Myer Music Bowl tonight with my family, and watching the various artists greet the thousands of people in Melbourne and around the country with a “Happy Christmas”.
Songs that include majestic carols will reverberate around Australia with a message of joy & peace sharing the true meaning of why we celebrate.
Some time ago I met a man in Westfield Shopping Centre who’s name was David. Due to the sadness of the breakup of his marriage over 25 years ago he told me he had lost faith and had now taken responsibility for his own life and was no longer a ‘believer’.
Interestingly after chatting with him he told me he had a hobby of writing prayers. Yes you heard it right!
Since then I have kept in touch and today I received this Christmas prayer from him.
“Lord it’s Christmas again. The year has brought with it the usual highs and lows, the triumphs and tragedies.
Thank you for the many gifts under our tree – for life and health and for soundness of mind – for fresh air and sunshine, for good food and clean water and for a safe place to live.
Thank you for friends and family, for beauty and love, for peace and for freedom and self-determination. Help us to use our gifts wisely.
We think of the many of us who are struggling with life. Help us to keep praying when our prayers seem to reach no higher than the ceiling.
If we’re homeless – give us shelter. If we feel helpless – give us strength. If we’re bereft – give us joy.
If we’re just plain tired – give us rest. If our “get up and go” has got up and gone – give us the energy to just place one foot in front of the other and direct our faltering steps towards the guiding light.
Help us hold on to our personal integrity even when faced with the worst of human evil. And help us to keep loving – knowing in our hearts with a certainty beyond reason that there is no other safe way.
Cover us with your mantle of peace, buoyed up and sustained in the promise of better days to come – when everyone will know only tolerance and acceptance from their neighbours – where every heart beats with a common humanity – the way it should always have been.
Help us to cling on to the hope that glimmers ever so faintly in the darkness, and to know that sometime soon there will come a day when the Son will rise and the shadows will disappear and the world will again be bathed in the warmth of your presence.
We hear you saying “Hold on. Hold on just a little longer. I have gone to prepare a place for you. I am coming soon to make your faith a reality. And looking back on your puzzling life you will see, not disappointments, but a pageant of victory”.
Help us to choose to be the sort of people who would make heaven a really nice place to be. And save us at last in Jesus’ name.
December 24th, 2014 at 4:20 AM
Thank you Pastor Fred , I look forward each month to reading your website . I am so grateful that Australia has not gone the way many countries have re discarding all reference to Christmas and Easter . Thank you for keeping in touch with the man you met in the shopping centre and sharing his story . Celebrating Christmas with family is so special .