Back to the Real Christmas…

“Sometimes… as we travel through life, we swing around a circle,“ wrote Oscar

Graeve. “We leave the calm faith of childhood for the … doubts of later years… But

then, if we are fortunate, we return… And in the simple happiness of a day’s toil and a

beckoning doorway at nightfall … and a child’s carefree laughter nearby, in … warmth

and love – in these ancient benedictions we find content. And… it is then… when we

are safely home again from our doubts and our wanderings, that Christmas means the

most“¹ “… Except ye … become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom

of heaven, “² said the Master of mankind. “Let us go back to the real Christmas… a day

of hope. Of faith. Of simple belief in simple things that are eternally with us, and, if we

cherish them, eternally lovely. “³ Let the spirit of Christmas “be kindled afresh… in a

way … which no skepticism and world-weariness can dim“⁴ – for the wholeness of the

world, the wholeness of men’s hearts will be found in Him whose birth Christmas

commemorates. With all the inward and outward disquietings, the wanderings, the

searchings and the unsolved problems, it is He who has said: “Peace I leave with you,

my peace I give unto you … . Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. “⁵

Whatever else may have been added to it, this, essentially, is the meaning of Christmas:

that Jesus, our Lord and Saviour, the son of God, the Messiah, lived and taught and died

and lives again, and was and is the Lord and Master of mankind. “This is the testimony.

.. which we give of him: That he lives! “⁶ as witnessed by the word of many, to which

this day we add our own: “I know that my redeemer liveth! …“⁷ May the spirit of the

Prince of Peace give searching hearts and peace and assurance that come with Christmas.

“God bless us everyone.“