Now
for the GOOD News!
Do you have a favourite Christmas carol? If you do, I’d love to play it for you, or play the accompaniment while you sing!
Last year I had the privilege and pleasure of playing for the Christmas morning service in the Grosvenor Hall, Belfast. I loved the banner on the wall behind me, with the words of the prophet Isaiah foretelling the birth of Jesus: ‘The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.’
My own favourite Christmas hymn is ‘It came upon the midnight clear’ based on the apostle Luke’s account of an angel suddenly appearing one night to shepherds who were out
They were told that, as a sign that this was true, they would find a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger (a very unlikely place for a baby to be!) The apostle John uses the word ‘sign’ instead of ‘miracle’ when referring to Jesus’s astonishing acts of healing. This ‘sign’ must have seemed miraculous to the shepherds! My favourite part of the story is: ‘The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for what they had heard and seen: it had all happened as they had been told.’ i.e. they had had confirmation of what had seemed an unbelievable event. That is why I love this part! Over the years I have noticed that a notable event is often followed by a confirmatory coincidence.
Poor, illiterate, marginalised, no doubt dirty and smelly, the shepherds are in complete contrast to the wealthy, mighty Roman emperor Augustus who was, at that very time, exercising his power by decreeing that all the (Roman) world should be taxed, and that all citizens must report to their place of birth to be registered. Yet these were the unlikely messengers chosen to spread the good news of “Peace on earth”!
Peace on earth… Well, many cynics would say “Nonsense! There will always be wars. Human beings are territorial and aggressive.” That, alas, is true. But there is another much deeper truth which, thank God, is always available to us, if we seek it. Jesus told his disciples that they would always hear of wars and rumours of wars – but that this must not stop them from following his teaching of the way of peace, love and repentance.
The third verse of my favourite hymn says:
But with the woes of sin and strife the world
has suffered long; beneath the angels’ hymn have rolled two thousand years of
wrong; and warring human-kind hears not the love-song which they bring; oh,
hush the noise and still the strife to hear the angels sing.
I first sang this in a junior choir on Christmas Day 1949 – seventy years ago! Since then the British armed forces have been involved in 27 wars in different parts of the world.
But over those same seventy years I have met many people who have inspired me: people who, despite sorrow, illness, financial worries and many other difficulties, have nevertheless discovered the joy of complete trust in God. We might call them “people who have heard the angels sing”!
This week sees the anniversary, on 10th December, of my first blog post on
www.ourgoldennetwork.blogspot.com
Entitled Help is at Hand then Help is at Hand (sequel), it is the true account of an astonishing incident which was followed by a confirmatory coincidence – so amazing that I felt the urge to share it with as many people as possible, in the hope of bringing them comfort and cheer! You can still find it by scrolling down all the way back to Monday 10 December, clicking 6 times on ‘More Posts’ as you go.
I am much indebted to my lovely friend Liz Crumlish, who helped me to set up my blog, then showed me how to add pictures to the text. Throughout this year (the year of my 80th birthday) I have published a new post almost every week, making a total of over 50. I hope that they have brought pleasure, and perhaps some comfort to my readers!
If I am spared (as we say here in Scotland) I hope to continue posting my true stories next year, in 2020. But meanwhile I wish you a Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year! To end with, here is a lovely picture, by a six-year-old girl, which has been on my study wall all year, since last Christmas…
Deo gratias
