A View From The Vicarage - December
Dear Friends
To See Or Not To See, That Is The Question
As I write this; it’s the middle of November, the country seems to be experiencing a flood of almost Biblical proportions with yet more appalling scenes of devastated and deluges homes and businesses. We’ve also just embarked upon the second General Election campaign in two years and the first December General Election in a century.
In view of all of that, it is little wonder if the majority of people across the country are facing Christmas with more uncertainty than usual. With Polling Day being set for 12th December we can at least be reasonably hopeful that by the time Christmas Day finally dawns we will have a clearer idea of the future direction that the majority of people in these islands want our country to take.
I know it may seem strange but all of our politicians desperately need our prayers at this time of uncertainty more than any other. Let’s pray that God grants to all who seek election, integrity, wisdom and judgement and to those who shall be elected may they always remember that election is to serve the needs and aspirations of those whom they are elected to represent both those who voted for them but also those who didn’t.
St. Luke reminds us that political expediency was the reason that Jesus was born in Bethlehem rather than in his parents’ home town of Nazareth. Political decisions can and do have dramatic and far reaching consequences.
The birth of the baby of Bethlehem reminds us that events which do not receive national or international attention at the time can have far more significant consequences that those that do.
How many people who were in Bethlehem at the time of Christ’s birth realised the dramatic significance of what had occurred among them? For many perhaps even the majority of the population of Bethlehem the child born to Mary and Joseph was just one more child born in an insignificant Judean town.
I’m convinced that many of those who witnessed the infant Christ were unaware of quite how momentous that child was. They’d witnessed a scene that would be reproduced innumerable times without realising quite how blessed the reality of what others could only dream of.
Can that be true of us as well? Do we fail to notice the real meaning of what is in front of our eyes not because we can’t see but because we fail to look with sufficient care.
May you see among the myriad images of your own Christmas celebrations the love of God in the child of Bethlehem and seeing him there may you see him in all around you.
Jean joins me in wishing you a happy, blessed and joyful Christmas and God’s abundant blessings throughout the coming year.
With my love and prayers as always
Ben