Christmas Letter to Indoor Members
I opened my post last week-end to find my first Christmas Card of 2011. It was the 19th November! Far too early I thought. I was already a little irritated by all the Christmas jingles and sales pitch in my local Supermarket. All that commercialism six weeks before Christmas doesn’t really get me into the right frame of mind to celebrate the birth of Jesus.
Then something special happened. I opened the card and found a message from a couple in my last Parish. They didn’t come to church very often, but they had met someone in the Village who had told them that I was just back from hospital in London and they decided to send a brief note to say I was “remembered with love”. I was so touched, and very ashamed of my testy reaction to my first Christmas Card of the Season!
Remembered with love. They not only had remembered me but also did something about it! And that is why we are sending you this message today. We want you to know that you too are remembered with love - and also with prayers. After all ,that is one of the marvellous gifts we have in the Mothers’ Union: we are a great family united by love and the power of prayer. This letter is a reminder that you are a special member of that family, and if there is anything of a practical nature you would want us to do make this a tangible reality, I do hope you will let us know.
Remembered with love. That is also very much part of the Christmas Message, isn’t it? I think that is why I get a little cross when I am sidetracked by all the sales pitch of the commercial Christmas! What really matters is the love which the present communicates. If only the present we give could speak and tell of the love it really brings, so it is not judged merely by its monetary or “fashion” value. One Present did just that! Jesus, the wonderful Gift of Christmas, said of Himself:: “God loved the world so much that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but will have eternal life.” John 3:16. What a gift! What love!
So if there are times when you get a bit down this Christmas, do remember that YOU are remembered with love by so many - including your Mothers’ Union Family - but particularly by Jesus Himself whose birth we celebrate amidst all the razzmatazz.
May you have a peaceful and blessed Christmas.
With love and prayers
JEFF
