Day 53 - Mark my footsteps

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eW90-d0pf8M

We can all chorus: the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace ... but many stumble after that! If we think that the list is in order of importance, love comes first, followed by joy, then peace. If you are in the habit of sending Christian Christmas cards, then those three words feature highly.

Yet we are surrounded by franticness (probably not a real world but it describes the last week before Christmas for so many people). I deliberately slow down by having all my presents bought and wrapped, only putting religious symbols on my tree, and leaving the Christmas cards to my husband! We eat very simply (this shows how much I love my husband): our lunch on the 25th is scones, honey and clotted cream; our tea is Christmas pudding and clotted cream. If we feel we need protein, there will be cheese and biscuits. On Boxing Day our son and family visit, bringing what the Americans call ‘cold cuts’ – so I don’t deprive ‘him indoors’ of some festive meat. After they have gone, we eat the other half of our Christmas pudding with clotted cream and heave a sigh of relief – Christmas food is over and done with, we can get back to normal healthy eating.

Love can be expressed in so many ways: a card or small gift given in person to those who are alone over Christmas; coping with the sensibilities of people who cannot celebrate in the usual way; giving to charity; making few demands on friends and family.

The word love is missing from many carols that we sing over Christmas, although the sentiment is encapsulated. Christina Rosetti’s Love came down at Christmas and Isaac Watt’s Joy to the world in which we sing the wonders of his love spring to mind as exceptions.

But my favourite carol which shows love in action is Good King Wenceslas. As a newish Christian, I wondered why this was sung in church – it doesn’t mention God until the last verse and there is nothing about Jesus or his birth. Yet there is charity: see someone in need and help straightaway; there is care for the servant, who felt the cold and there is a clear message:

Therefore, Christian men, be sure, while God’s gifts possessing,

You who now will bless the poor shall yourselves find blessing.

(Words appropriate in the 19th century!)

However, the best bit of the carol for me is this: In his master’s steps he trod, where the snow lay dinted - as surely this refers as much to us following the way Jesus taught as it does to the freezing servant?

Prayer:

We ask that you open our eyes, hearts, hands and wallets when we see the needs of those around us. Remind us not to forget the gift of time: to listen to the sick, lonely and frightened.

We experience your love in our lives daily; show us the ways to pass that love on, not just at Christmas but all year round. Amen.

Elaine Kinchin