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Always winter
but never Christmas
- C.S. Lewis
What if...
Imagine a Christmas card posing the
question, "What if there had never been Christmas...?"
Apparently, there was once a clergyman who, sitting by his
desk on Christmas morning, nodded off from sheer exhaustion.
He had a fretful sleep and an uneasy dream. He dreamt that
he lived on a Continent on which nothing was known of the
coming of Jesus Christ.
The first thing he did was to run home. He looked in through
the windows of his house, hoping to see the usual signs of
Christmas preparations, but all he saw were idle people with
sad faces. He turned to go and wandered through the streets
of the town, looking for churches but he found neither church,
nor chapel. Then he decided to go into a library. He took
one book after another off the shelves and searched in them
for the name of the Saviour but it was not to be found in
any of them. Despondently, he turned to go. On his way home
a little girl with tearful eyes stopped him. She asked him
to come to her home because her mother lay dying. He went
with her. He sat down by the bed of the sick woman saying,
"I have comforting words for you", and he reached
for his pocket Bible. However, when he had opened the little
volume, he could not find the Gospels in it. Two days later
he was standing by the coffin of the dead woman. He was supposed
to comfort the little group of friends and relatives that
had gathered by the graveside but, in his Bible, he could
find no promise of heaven and resurrection. Instead of giving
them hope, all he could say was, "Dust you are and to
dust you shall return." He looked round at the little
company and his eyes brimmed over with tears. He broke down
in disconsolate crying. Sadness, mourning, separation, hopelessness...
he was overcome with desperation.
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Suddenly, he woke with a start - the
strains of a wonderful melody penetrated his restless
sleep. They were coming from the nearby church:
Silent night, Holy night,
All is calm, all is bright...
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He did not have to look up the words
in his hymn-book. He knew the triumphant climax of the hymn
- "Christ the Saviour is born, Christ the Saviour is
born..." - O, the relief that came over him!
Yes, we could say, O, well, it was
just a dream... But just imagine if this were not a dream!
And yet - for those for whom Christ means nothing, who do
not believe in Him, this is what reality is.
It's great to sing of the coming of the Lord Jesus, about
his birth, his life, his death and resurrection. But all this
is more than just having a happy time singing. For Christ's
coming into this world is a fact of history. What's more,
this is so much more than just a matter of accepting it with
our minds as cold fact. If we believe in Him in our hearts,
then, instead of it being just head knowledge, it becomes
a wonderful truth for us personally, giving us hope and comfort.
Then we shall have peace and joy, whatever adverse circumstances
we might find ourselves in.
Yes, had Jesus not come to our world, our situation would
be truly desperate. But - what a relief - he really did come,
2000 years ago, to make all the difference to our lives. He
came, he lived, died and rose again, to live forever. So we
can come to Him, the living Saviour, even today, bringing
our burdened hearts and asking him to set our lives free from
everything that spoils and undermines them.
So come and meet Jesus Christ, for he has come to meet every
one of us, in order to give us a future and a hope. Then,
with Him, we shall have a truly wonderful Christmas.
(based on a story from Hungary,
translated by Aniko Williams)
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