Travelling home from the city last night I was trapped under the shelter of an awning watching the hail fall heavily around us. There was a sense of wonder of being caught up in something which was newsworthy but also witnessing how easily lives could be changed in that single moment of a storm. People huddled together not just to avoid being soaked but out of a fear that if they stepped out that they could be seriously hurt. For myself, I had images of my umbrella being battered and holed to make it no longer fit for purpose! There was a moment where I physically had to stop and wait in what had seemed a hectic day of last-minute activity. Yet being held at that moment I could not stop the hail or the storm I just had to wait it out.
In a similar way, Christmas and the birth of Jesus falls upon us and holds our attention by the immediacy of its impact on us. Rather than battering us into submission, it allows silence to fall upon us. This is not to cause damage to us but to disturb us by a silence which speaks eloquently to our hearts. It stops us to remember what or who do we listen for in life. Who will actually befriend us against the storms which can often be unleashed unexpectedly on our lives? Who will listen to our voice when it seems our prayers echo into darkness? Yet it is in this darkest of nights, in the raging of noise that can submerge us in the activity that one person steps through the mist to reach out to us. It calls for us to pause and listen to the call of a child who makes sense of our hearts. This is a time when our minds are enthralled, our hearts quickened and our lives enwrapped in velvety darkness that befriends us. May this Christmas move us closer to God and to each other with a spirit of generosity, gentleness and thanksgiving. Let nothing affright you! Let the silent voice of Jesus befriend you!
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