A reason to celebrate

This fellow died and went to Heaven. St. Peter welcomed him and began to show him around his new home. The fellow was suitably impressed with paradise all except for one confusing item. A huge high wall seemed to stretch for miles across Heaven. He asked St. Peter, what was the meaning of the seemingly impenetrable wall. ‘Shhh ! warned St Peter, ‘The Catholics live behind there, they think they are the only ones here’.
Someone once said, ‘We will be surprised who we see in Heaven’. In England it is not uncommon to receive an envelope with the bold letters O.H.M.S printed. This type of correspondence is usually from a Government department, the letters stand for On Her Majesties Service. Some wag suggested that this is what you are likely to receive when you reach the Pearly gates and you may not get in because up there those letters stand for Only Hindus Muslims and Sikhs.
Of course we do not have all the answers to things spiritual and although a popular saying goes, ‘this life is not a dress rehearsal’, it probably is. We may spend a lifetime trying to keep physically and mentally fit but I am convinced that it is not going to do us any harm to ask a few spiritual questions. I once picked up a hitch hiker and discovered he was a Muslim, we got so engrossed in religious tit for tat that he ended up staying the night at our home. We talked well into the night debating Christianity verses Islam, we eventually agreed to disagree, realizing that it was unlikely either one of us would convert to an opposite’s faith. Actually, the Bible says that true religion is caring for orphans and widows.
So we move on and focus on the second most important date on the Christian calendar,
Christmas.
A close Christian friend of mine, announced that from this year forward, he was giving up on Christmas. I could see his point of view. Lots of pagan rituals make up the trappings of Christmas. Plus as we all know it is a money making commercialized bonanza. One of his arguments was that the shepherds could not have been in the fields watching their flocks at that time of year because it was winter. This and numerous other facts apparently prove that the birth of Christ was not on December the 25th. He may be right although I was told that it was the Temple shepherds who looked after the sacrificial lambs. If this is true they could have been outside in all weathers, all seasons. Putting speculation and theology aside, I see it this way, we are now moving into the year 2010. Not big news until you ask why is it 2010. Definitely amazing when you consider that our date system begins at the birth of Jesus Christ. Not from Alexander the Great, not from Genghis Khan, Margaret Thatcher, Galileo, Aristotle or Winston Churchill. This means that whatever the exact date of Christ’s birth, it really is of little consequence when you consider, His birth changed mankind, gave us all hope and has impacted the globe to such an extent that there are, today, over two billion Christian believers. Now that’s worth celebrating.
So Maureen and I will continue to celebrate Christmas on December 25th. As with other years it’s going to be extra special with all four of our children’s families including eleven grandchildren gathering together. We will probably eat too much, there will be a Christmas tree, presents for the children, definitely a glass of wine or two and there will be a moment when all the laughter and chatter stops, all the plastic glitter of human tradition is put aside, a moment to give thanks for God’s provision, love and most of all for Jesus, the reason for the season.