One of the advantages of living in a country like Bahrain is the lack of the commercial run up to Christmas.  On the other hand because the schools finish half way through December, everyone sets their sights on the great Christmas exodus soon after December has begun.  We have to progress with our own run up to Christmas while the 'regulars' are still with us.  That is not a bad thing.  It provides the opportunity to reflect on some of the important aspects of Advent and the Christmas story and the whole concept of 'Incarnation' which is one of the central planks of Christianity.

Here's a reminder of one thing we should all be doing in November - beginning to think about our Christmas card list before we miss the post.  Out comes that well worn address book and the realization there are a few names of people we haven't heard from in ages.  Unless we are one of the well organized people of this world we can't even remember who we had cards from last year.  We are faced with a dilemma; do we or don't we send 'them' a card?

Most of have someone in our lives like that with whom we communicate only once a year.  At one time we may have been very close, but now for one reason or another, distance has grown between us.  We have become disconnected.  It shows that a relationship suffers from neglect just as surely as a garden does.  We get disconnected from God too, just as easily.  It's not necessarily that we have stopped believing; it's just that we get disconnected.  We may have been very close to God as children or young adults but over the years a distance, a space, has grown between us.  When this happens an enormous loss occurs, a huge vacuum results.  As the Book of Common Prayer puts it so quaintly and vividly "...We have erred and strayed from Thy ways like lost sheep."

A six year old child observed - "It makes me feel lonely not knowing God."  If we experience this loneliness we shouldn't be alarmed.  It is an opportunity and a grace.  In every human heart there is an empty chamber waiting for a guest and that guest is God.  Christmas and all that surrounds it is an opportunity to reconnect ourselves with God using the familiar, heart warming assurance of the God who is among us.  Christmas also provides an opportunity to reconnect ourselves with other people.  That too brings us peace and joy.

The shepherds returned to their flocks 'glorifying and praising God for all they had seen and heard.'  Nothing had changed, yet everything had been transformed.  They had a new vision, a new hope, a new sense of the love of God for them and the whole world.

Don't lose touch with God once you have become reconnected this Christmas and don't lose touch with old friends with whom you become reconnected through your Christmas greetings.  Keep a list of their names and keep that list by you as you pray for those friends and acquaintances regularly throughout the year and remain connected this Christmas and always.  You life could be transformed.
 

With every blessing for a constructive Advent and a very Happy Christmas,
Alan Hayday