....... I'm thinking of you all.
What's Christmas going to be like for me this year?
Today and tomorrow are rainy, grey days with heavy winds and no sun. Great beginning!
My little tree is lit and I am touched to see the little parcels underneath it, put there by friends here and family in Canada. Means a lot when one is alone.
Colourful and happy Christmas cards line my window ledge and my email box is stuffed full of Christmas letters. Thank-you so much! They remind me I'm still part of your lives.
Tonight, at 11:30, we will meet at St. Andrew's for a watchnight service. At midnight, I will have the privilege of lighting the 5th Advent candle. Christ is born!
Tomorrow, in Brit style, we'll have a Christmas Day service at 11 am. I'll be saying the Prayer for Others. The church will be packed full - about 300 of us. Many families have gone away for the holidays but others arrive to fill the pews - children home from school in England, grandparents sharing this special time with family here, visitors to the city and also those for whom only Christmas (and Easter) are their link to the church. It will be a happy, musical, warm service.
I'll run home from church and Skype my grandchildren who will be in the process of tearing paper off their gifts as fast as possible (morning in eastern Canada) and Grandma wants to sit in and watch! Caden and Matt will be sharing Christmas with Matt's family in Fort Erie, so I'll want to check in on that too.
And then I'll take the tram up to the Gardners' home for Christmas dinner. Andrew and Julie and their daughters have lovingly invited me to share this day with them again this year. All of them are superb cooks and Andrew will have wines to go with each dish! There will be lots of laughter, and oohs when Karalynn brings in the flaming plum pudding!
Night falls. Rain patters on my windows. I light my candle. I am alone but I know I am surrounded by love and hugs from many friends here and many of you "over there".
"Christians share an odd belief in parallel universes. One universe consists of glass and steel and wool clothes and leather briefcases and the smell of freshly ground coffee. The other consists of angels and sinister spiritual forces and somewhere out there places called Heaven and Hell. We palpably inhabit the material world; it takes faith to consider oneself a citizen of the other, invisible world....At Christmas, the Lord of both worlds descends to live by the rules of the one. In Bethlehem, the two worlds came together, realigned; what Jesus went on to accomplish on planet Earth made it possible for God someday to resolve all disharmonies in both worlds. No wonder a choir of angels broke out in spontaneous song, disturbing not only a few shepherds but the entire universe!" (Ph. Yancey)
