Change of Perspective

This week I had to smile at a video I saw and shared on social media.  It was about a very small child holding a mobile phone.  I am guessing that the child is only about 12-18 months old as she is not able to pronounce proper words and talks throughout the video in gobbledigook. It is very humorous to watch how the small child carries out her 'conversation' using gestures that no doubt she copied from the adults in her life whom she had seen doing the same thing.  No doubt the toddler is very serious in what she is doing while others who are older find her actions quite funny and worth filming and sharing.  The video lasts just over a minute long and is worth seeing if you haven't already done so,.  Just click on the picture.

Often our age has a lot to do with how we view things.  Our perspective changes as we grow older.  As small children, we think our parents know everything about everything and tend to believe anything we are told.  As we grow into our teens, they obviously know nothing at all but when we ourselves become parents, we realise that they were right all along.  And so it is with many things in life.  How our concepts change depending on our age!

I had a stark reminder of this this week as yesterday I reached a milestone in my life when I celebrated the fact that I arrived on this planet 75 years ago.  I remember as a child thinking that people in their teens were quite grown up.  When I became a teenager, I looked with awe at those in their 20s while people in their 30s were getting on a bit.  There is a tendency to look upon someone of an older generation as really old until we actually reach that age.  I always felt that those in their 60s and 70s were really ancient but now that i'm 75, well it's not that old.  I mean people often live until they're well into their 90s and beyond.  (Forget the Bible verse that tells us that a person's life is three score years and ten!)  In my mind, I'm still young and active.  I just wish sometimes that my body would adopt the same perspective.

This has all been a bit tongue in cheek but on one last serious note, it is important to accept that someone can change their opinions about things without actually being a sort of traitor to their prior beliefs and thoughts.  It's just that as nature evolves with the seasons and the life flourishes and becomes something quite different from the early stages of existence, so we humans change our perspective on things as we live and learn.  It is the nature of things to evolve and we as part of creation continue evolving as we grow, learn and become aware of things in life.  As we journey, our view points vary.  We begin to see things we couldn't before.  And I'm still evolving and learning.  Well, we're never too old to live and learn. 

  

Get A Life!

I saw this photo the other day.  Apparently it has now gone viral.  It is obviously a crowd of people waiting to see their favourite celebrities.  When you look more closely at the picture you see that everyone is ready with their camera, iphone or tablet to get the occasion for posterity so they can look at it later at length.  Everyone, that is, except a small, white-haired lady right at the front.  Maybe she doesn't own any such device.  But on the other hand she doesn't have to be concerned with getting the right angle or if someone sticks their head right in front of her just as she is taking the longed-for photo.  She is just happy to be there and is soaking up the atmosphere and I guess not missing a thing.  Her total concentration is on the event of the moment and she is enjoying whatever is happening right now without being distracted by searching for the optimum position and getting ready to click, making sure to click the right button at the exact moment.  She is engrossed in the moment and enjoying it to the full.

At the beginning of the week (for those who aren't on my friends list on Facebook so don't already know) I underwent an operation to remove a cataract from my right eye.  People I spoke to who have had it done all told me that it was nothing to worry about and that I wouldn't feel a thing.  It would all be over in no time at all.  Everyone tried to console me and I tried to take it all on board but if I'm honest I was still a little apprehensive.  

Learning about something, whether from books, professionals or friends and actually experiencing what they are describing can be two entirely different things.  It's the difference between saying, 'People told me about it' and 'Now I know what it's like'.  

Ask any young mother who has just given birth for the first time or a sports fan who watches a game on television while other fans go to the venue and watch it in person.  You can't really absorb the atmosphere and the feeling of being carried along by other fans who also want to cheer on their team.  The singing, the cheering, the banter.  They will tell you that there is no comparison between watching it on a screen and watching it for real.  The experience far outweighs seeing it second hand.

Also at the beginning of the week we had the rare occurrence of the supermoon and lunar eclipse that could be seen around the world.  Many people stayed up to watch it.  Others who had work or other commitments really needed their sleep so opted to watch pictures shown on the news the next morning.  Although I am retired and don't need to go to work, I still slept through the night and missed actually seeing the event as it unfolded.  The pictures I saw were indeed quite spectacular and it's an event that won't happen again until I'm well into my 90s, if I'm still with life that is. I'm sure though that for those who did see it, they would look at pictures and just know that you can't capture the same feelings of awe and wonder at the workings of the heavens.  You have to be in it to feel it.

 You can have a great deal of knowledge about a subject or event but that doesn't compare with the actual experience.  We can look at photos or pictures, read articles or books but the experience allows us to identify with the occasion and the people involved.  It involves emotions and conjures up feelings of wonder and pleasure.  We never know what the future will bring or how long we have in this life so it's a shame if we spend too much time just having second hand knowledge rather than living the occasion with all that that entails.  It's rather sad that so many people spend so much time learning about something that they never get to really enjoy experiencing it.  Embrace the moment to the full.  Immerse yourself in the experience.  Go for it, even though you may be a little apprehensive.  In the nicest possible way I want to say 'Get a life!'    

Whose Christmas Is It Anyway?

Spend, spend, spend.  It seems that at this time of the year that's all we seem to be doing.  We start with the buying of gifts for family and friends and then we stock up on food as though we are catering for the five thousand (slight exaggeration!)  But we do tend to over-cater for the Christmas holiday time - just in case.  And we buy stuff that we wouldn't normally eat but feel almost obliged to indulge in all those sweet delights and 'extras' just because 'it's Christmas'. Then no sooner is the actual day over, some then go on to spend more trying to get some bargain in the after-Christmas sales.  It is understandable therefore that some would say that Christmas belongs to the commercial sector and that they are the ones who gain most.  Not everyone thinks like the Grinch when he ponders, 'Maybe Christmas doesn't come from a store, maybe Christmas ... perhaps ... means a little bit more.'


I can't help thinking that most people, if asked to name someone associated with Christmas, would say without thinking 'Santa Claus' rather than Jesus or any of the people from the original nativity scene.  Everywhere you go, there are pictures of the man with the red and white fur-trimmed clothes and the big white beard who always seems to be smiling.  'Tis the season to be jolly, Ho Ho Ho and all that.  Cards, books, television programmes are all about Santa Claus.  So some might think that Christmas belongs to Santa Claus.


On the other hand I have heard Christians say that the Christmas season belongs to Christians.  This was made quite plain to some friends who decided to go to a carol service at the local church before Christmas.  The church was full when they arrived there.  They looked around and saw a few seats at the back of the building and were hoping to sit down when they were told that those seats were reserved for church members who were doing stewarding duties and who would be taking their seats shortly.  The friends sadly left the building feeling a bit that maybe fully paid up members of the club/church group had priority when it came to seating and after all they were 'outsiders'.  Having said that, I know of other Christians who spent some of their Christmas Day serving up a hot meal for those who would have otherwise been on their own this Christmas.  So Christmas as some believe, belongs to the Christians.  

We notice many Christians urging us not to take Christ out of Christmas.  I totally agree!  But what exactly do we mean by this?  It's easy to keep Christ in the written word Christmas, but it's the actions that really matter.  The first Christmas which is the one that as Christians we celebrate at this time of year, was not a great gathering of religious people.  It wasn't some carefully organised celebration.  It was an act of God totally emptying himself of love for all of humanity.  It was a sign of hope for those who were downtrodden, justice for those who were treated unfairly and a future for those who lived in fear of what tomorrow might bring.  As in the words of the song, written and sung by mainly non-church-goers; Feed the world, let them know it's Christmas time.  It is not about celebrating one day; it is a way of living; it's the daily echo of God's self-emptying love lived out in our own lives.  Who does Christmas belong to?  Actually, from God's point of view, it belongs to everyone.  Joy to the world.  Peace on earth, goodwill to all people.  To really 'own' Christmas, we have to live it not just one day of the year but every day and show God's love to all, whoever they are, whatever they believe and whatever are their circumstances.  Emmanuel - God with us - God's love for all of his creation expressed in human form.  That's the real Christmas message.  

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas everywhere I go.  Shops have had their festive decorations up for quite some time.  Every time you go into town you can see people carrying boxes, wrapping paper and all things to do with the Christmas season.  As far as I am concerned, the cards have been bought and written - well most of them anyway.  Some need to be posted early to go abroad, others to different parts of the UK and others I can deliver by hand locally.  Presents are either bought or ordered.  Some are already wrapped but still quite a lot to do.  Tomorrow (Sunday) is the first Sunday of Advent.  The last day of November is when I usually sort out the tree and decorations ready to be in place for the 1st of December.  So I guess you could say 'it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas'.  Or is it?  At least it's like what we in the west have made it become.

It's actually nothing like the very first Christmas.  How different!  There was no tinsel or decorations, no turkey dinner with family, no relaxing and being entertained.  The King of Kings was not surrounded by servants or lived in a palace with all the comforts of the hierarchical, rich lifestyle of those in authority.  Paul in his letter to the Philippians describes it as God emptying himself into the physical, human presence of his son.  This emptying was expressed by being born illegitimately to a young teenager in a place that was kept for the animals.  No family or friends to visit and celebrate.  Instead he was visited by lowly workers doing the night shift and foreigners who probably didn't even speak the same language as Mary and Joesph.  The subsequent years of his infancy were spent as a refugee, an asylum seeker, an immigrant in a foreign land.  He knew from experience what it was like to be hungry and a stranger and to be fed and accepted and taken in.  He had lived life in the lowly margins of society.  He emptied himself until there was no more to give.  

Having said all that, I do love Christmas and I love to celebrate as we do now with decorations, great food and exchanging of presents with loved ones.  And I don't suggest for one minute that we should stop doing that.  Be happy, enjoy time with family and friends, taste the good food, relax and enjoy the break but spare a thought for those who maybe have to work over the holidays.  Be thankful for what we have but remember that there are some who don't have a place to stay or family to share Christmas dinner with.  Some people now, instead of sending and posting Christmas cards, are giving the money they would have spent on that to a charity in order to help feed the hungry or give a bed to the homeless.  I must admit that I haven't done that, (I like the idea of greeting friends with a card) but I admire those who do. 

An activity that many engage in over the months leading up to Christmas is the filling of a shoebox with goodies to send to a child in some far away place.  This week I read of a young Filipino girl who 14 years ago received a shoebox at Christmas sent from a young boy in America through the very well known Operation Christmas Child scheme.  She was so grateful for that gift that she later tried to contact the boy to thank him.  She was unsuccessful but later in life, she was able through the social media to make contact with him .  Their friendship grew until recently they got married and for wedding presents they requested that people donate shoeboxes for the charity to continue the work that had brought them together.  You can read the full story here.

I guess that to make it really look like Christmas, we should enjoy the festivities but also give something of ourselves, empty out a little of the much that we have in order to help others, a kind of antidote to the madness of Black Friday.  That is the real message of Christmas and what God meant Christmas to look like.  'Insomuch as you have done it unto the least of these, you have done it unto me.'  Emmanuel - God emptying himself into every walk of life for all people everywhere.  That really is something to celebrate!