Snow is quite unusual here on the South Coast. Today gave us a smattering of the white stuff! Sadly, so little that it didn’t make a decent picture. So I’ve gone back to another snowy surprise- 1988 in the lovely town of Wirksworth in the Peak District. What started as a little scattering grew overnight- and threw us all into a tizz.
By lunchtime it had improved a bit. Walking down to the town for a loaf of bread, I went down the back path. A farm track with a few nice houses/driveways, which emerged at the top of a seriously sloping market place. This is one of the first “snow” photos that I took. I still like the memory.
Snow is simply frozen water crystals. Its arrival transforms the landscape- covering all the dirty bits, even the bins become beautiful. It also makes travel more difficult, puts our heating bill up, and in the UK causes anything from minor panic to total disruption. Driving on snow requires experience and tuition: but how can you get experience when it hardly ever snows? Countries who get regular snow are geared up for it: I shudder to think what Austrians or Canadians would say if they saw how chaotic snowy Sussex can be!
In Narnia, the snow has come… always winter but never Christmas… (CS Lewis, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe). So the presence of an evil Witch meant Narnia had all the worst bits of snowy winter, without the consolation of a celebration! No Christmas??? Horror upon horror!
It took the visit of the brave children to challenge the Witch- and to prepare the way for the Great Lion, Aslan, to return to free the captives and hasten the Spring. (Read the story- you’re never too old for a good adventure!)
Christmas isn’t going to be much of a feast for many this year. People are poorer, inflation has risen, heating costs are ridiculously high. Winter with no Christmas…
What if…
What if we do what the children did in Narnia? Challenge the mis-leaders, take on the nay-sayers, help the poorest… Support foodbanks, volunteer at the Free Christmas Lunches in our community, give generously to mission and relief agencies, care for a neighbour, invite a lonely one to be a friend. Build YOUR Christmas round Jesus, the child-gift from heaven. Worship Christ… share love with the sad, the sick, the lonely. As somebody said once, if we want to put the Christ back into Christmas we need to start by putting Christ back into Christians!
It’s our festival- historically, the time many churches have chosen to celebrate the Incarnation of Jesus. If we are to have Christmas at all, let the compassion and love of Jesus be the centrepiece.
Can we stop the over-commercial ruckus that society has made? No, probably not. We can, however, set our own party rules! Not going into debt unwisely, not stuffing our faces until we pop, not keeping up with the crazy over-indulgence. Instead of that, being simply kind. It might catch on.
After all, the snow melted in Narnia when Aslan turned up. Christmas- the true Christmas– came.
It’s up to us.
The Reflectionary 