Today is a day of feasting, friendship and gaiety, often
overlaid with regrets and sorrow. Too often, “Christmas
is the Disneyfication of Christianity." (Don Cupitt) I am not down on
Disney – but an adventure in an amusement park leaves us stuffed, exhausted and
broke – just like too many of our Christmases!
Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote
We
have become so accustomed to the idea of divine love and of God's coming at
Christmas that we no longer feel the shiver of fear that God's coming should
arouse in us. We are indifferent to the message, taking only the pleasant and
agreeable out of it and forgetting the serious aspect, that the God of the
world draws near to the people of our little earth and lays claim to us. The
coming of God is truly not only glad tidings, but first of all frightening news
for everyone who has a conscience.
I hope and pray your celebration is blessed with your heart’s
desires, gentle readers, and a holy, happy knowledge that God gave His Son so
that you might have life and have it abundantly. (Psalm34)
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