Christmas greetings
A Merry Christmas to you all in the blogosphere!
My former university Chaplain and spiritual guide Fr. Michael Garvey (Uni. of Liverpool in the late '80s) sent me the following reflection the other day and I have asked him if I might share it on here (thanks Mike!).
Christmas Greetings 2012
Seasonal greetings, vieing for attention, fill our shelves. Some stand out because of their design. The best remembered are those bearing the names of people special to us. Instinctively we can pick them out in an instant.
So it’s more the greeter than the greeting! The tattiest of greetings from the right person means more to us than the most elaborate and expensive.
Animals, restless, noisy and smelly, a straw filled wooden trough, the chill of the night air, the total lack of security, it’s the greeting we all recognise, the very opposite of sophisticated and well-heeled - but how well do we know the Greeter?
He knows us, intimiately. He loves us, individually. He delivers on his promises. For Him, we are, always and in all circumstances, unique and irreplaceable. He has committed Himself to us with an unbreakable bond and for eternity, but the question remains, how well do we choose to know Him?
It’s a searching question. One we may marginalise because we’re too busy. But it’s echo is etched in our hearts... and by the greeter!
He said, “This is the covenant I will make with them, when those days have come. In their minds I will plant my Laws writing them on their hearts, and I shall never more call their sins to mind."
(Hebrews 10:16-17)
Rejoicing in the joy of accepting His greeting, may I offer you my prayer and thoughts at a time of worldwide stress and upheaval.
My former university Chaplain and spiritual guide Fr. Michael Garvey (Uni. of Liverpool in the late '80s) sent me the following reflection the other day and I have asked him if I might share it on here (thanks Mike!).
Christmas Greetings 2012
Seasonal greetings, vieing for attention, fill our shelves. Some stand out because of their design. The best remembered are those bearing the names of people special to us. Instinctively we can pick them out in an instant.
So it’s more the greeter than the greeting! The tattiest of greetings from the right person means more to us than the most elaborate and expensive.
Animals, restless, noisy and smelly, a straw filled wooden trough, the chill of the night air, the total lack of security, it’s the greeting we all recognise, the very opposite of sophisticated and well-heeled - but how well do we know the Greeter?
He knows us, intimiately. He loves us, individually. He delivers on his promises. For Him, we are, always and in all circumstances, unique and irreplaceable. He has committed Himself to us with an unbreakable bond and for eternity, but the question remains, how well do we choose to know Him?
It’s a searching question. One we may marginalise because we’re too busy. But it’s echo is etched in our hearts... and by the greeter!
He said, “This is the covenant I will make with them, when those days have come. In their minds I will plant my Laws writing them on their hearts, and I shall never more call their sins to mind."
(Hebrews 10:16-17)
Rejoicing in the joy of accepting His greeting, may I offer you my prayer and thoughts at a time of worldwide stress and upheaval.
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