Most of us still have a Christmas tree each year; though it might be better to buy a sustainable one and to make sure we dispose of it in an environmentally friendly way. Most of us also have a box of decorations that we keep in the loft and that we unpack with childlike wonder. The decorations themselves usually carry the weight of many memories: things our children made at school as well as decorations passed to us from a previous generation, reminding us of our own childhood.
We usually put a star or an angel at the top of the tree. This even happens in the homes of those who won't be planning any visits to church at Christmas. Yet it gets us back to the heart of the story – the strange announcement to Mary that she would bear God’s son; a new star rising, offering the world a different path to follow.
STOP
* What stars are you following? What do you really want to get out of life? It doesn’t say on anyone’s gravestone, they wished they’d spent more time at the office!
* What angels will visit you today? What messages are you listening to? Those siren voices complaining that you aren’t good enough, rich enough, clever enough, attractive enough? Or the voices of affirmation that say to you, like they said to Mary, that God thinks you’re OK, that he has a purpose for your life that he can be alive in you. The word angel means ‘messenger’. There are messages for you today.
* And why not buy a real ever-new, evergreen Christmas tree in a pot this year, and then keep it for next year as well.
* If you have a cut tree, make sure you recycle it. Ninety per cent aren’t!
Do Nothing Christmas is Coming. By Stephen Cottrell. Published by Church House Publishing 2008
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