Anerley Methodist Church

 Volume 42 Number 4 D

Anxiety, family coming round, financial stress, a food mountain in the fridge, little food, what presents to buy and who for, a present you don’t know what to do with, horrible traffic jams– you could go on, but look above.

Christmas for us may be tough in many ways but let us not forget that first Christmas. Imagine the anxiety of Mary and Joseph. Will they get to Bethlehem before the baby is born?  Family stress, it was family that was taking them to Bethlehem, they had to register in the census there. Food, what they had they had to carry, no doubt little money to buy. A present, well one was on the way! And traffic jams, I think I’d prefer that to travelling on foot or on a donkey. And amidst all of this, questions – Could what they had been told really be true? Was this to be the Son of God? Was the conception as they had been told? Would they be shunned?

The first Christmas probably had as much anxiety, stress and family worries as today – but they had something to hold on to, somebody to share their worries with. On the journey to Bethlehem and in Bethlehem itself they had the knowledge that God was with them.

What is Christmas to you? Is materialism or spirituality at its heart? Have you got that extra something to carry you through the anxiety, the stress, the tiredness? Are you aware that Christ, the Son of God is at the centre, the lifeblood of Christmas? If you are, then remember, just as Mary and Joseph had that extra support in their time of stress, so do you. Lean on Him.