Christmas Alone.

Christmas Child -Easter Man

When life is full of questions, 

and no answers can be found.

When clouds seem dark and black,
 despair is all around.

When the road ahead seems frightening.

Each day is hard to bear.

We can feel so lost and helpless,

with not a soul to care.

If we turn our eyes from the moment,

from the day

to find the child of Christmas,

as he lies amidst the hay.

We can see the Man of Easter 

and the horrors of the cross.

Then we know he hears our calling,

our every single loss.

For the Christmas Child is near us

we do not stand alone.

Not only at this season

is he here to take our hand.

Each day throughout the year.

 He travels there beside us,

in all things, with us, he takes his stand.

So let the CHILD OF CHRISTMAS

be a gift to you this year.

And have the MAN beside,

throughout the coming year.

Christmas Alone.

"In the beginning, was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him, nothing was made that was made."

John 1;1-3

Christmas, Easter, Birthdays and Anniversaries; some of the high moments of life. It is so often at these times that we become aware like at no other time of our frailty. These events and moments make us acutely aware of all that happens around us. A wedding anniversary when a spouse is no longer there to be part of the celebration seems like a pit of emptiness. A birthday spent alone can be equally as desolate.

Christmas like no other can be the very worst. We are bombarded from every angle about the message of joy and good tidings. We are reminded not just daily but many times a day that this is the season of goodwill and families.

The deadline for parcels and Christmas card sending is fast approaching. For most people, these positive messages can become reminders of what once was and now how alone you have become.

Cards do not drop through the post with every postal delivery and the thought of preparing a special meal to sit and eat alone can be destroying.

My first ever Christmas after becoming a member of the Christian Church and fellowship was spent away from home. For possibly the first time in my life, I sensed loneliness and aloneness. 

I was living in a commune and all the members of the group had gone to stay with family and friends. As I walked home from a midnight service I had attended I was very aware that it was now Christmas day and here I was utterly alone.  I knew for certain that I was not the only person who would be full of such thoughts and feelings. For me this was the first of many; it would be one in a string of such empty lonely Christmas days.

There was a Christmas Tree in the flat where we all lived and I sat down in front of it and felt the tears of loneliness run down my cheeks.

I looked at the tree and became very conscious that this symbol of Christmas held all the ingredients of the Cross of Easter. For the first time ever in my fairly short life, I became aware of an inflowing peace and calm. A calm that passes all understanding. The peace of Christmas wrought from the cross of Easter.

To speak of this peace that passes all understanding takes on a real sense meaning only when we are aware of the pain involved in that peace being available to us today. If the wood of the tree speaks of the desolation of the Easter man then it speaks aloud hallelujah of the joy and comfort of the Christmas Child.