Sandy's Christmas Message

One of the big films of recent years which I did not see was “The Titanic”. I told people I didn’t go because “I knew the ending! True. I come from a generation of boys who thought women in films spoiled things! Love interest spoiled a good picture! So why go and see a ship sinking especially when the picture was of questionable factual accuracy! No, I knew the ending; I didn’t need to sit for three hours to see what happened.

Seems strange then that there is another story where I know the ending yet I never tire of hearing it!! We are charging headlong to Christmas and all the emotions that that festival creates. It is a strange mixture of happiness and melancholy with as many tears as smiles. It is a time of reflection and hope, of family fun and abject loneliness. It is a time when we are bombarded with sentiment, greed and desire but also extraordinary kindness and friendliness. And all because two thousand years ago a baby was born!

Personally I love Christmas, the real Christmas – not Xmas, I don’t know what that is! I mean the Christmas of carols and trees, decorations and lights, kindness and happy children’s faces, nativity plays and hopefully snow, our Queen’s Christmas message and the message of Jesus Christ himself.

It is such a shame that children don’t get the opportunity to hear that message loud and clear. Sunday schools are nearly a thing of history; a nativity play is nearly as rare as the Passion Play of Oberammagau. The extraordinary influence of the politically correct has pushed another agenda, which rejects the celebration of this Christian festival because it is seen by the misguided, as divisive. They have missed the Christian message!!

Before I am criticised again! I attended a church service in Galashiels recently when the brave step of inviting an Islamic guest to give a reading from the Koran was accepted. It was an extraordinary moment but it worked, and worked very well. I spoke to the reader after and we both agreed the importance of such an event and we also agreed we celebrate the same God.

If you love Christmas as I do, do not deprive your children from hearing the story that you heard when you were a child. Don’t leave it to the school or the television to tell the story. If you have been away from church for a while go back and hear the story again. Most of the regular congregation will welcome you, some may not, but does it matter? Remember there is somebody more important watching you. Take the children to a service before Christmas day itself, enjoy advent in church not on a calendar, even take them to the midnight service and let them sing the carols as you did. Let them sing the carols, hear the readings and feel the atmosphere of the real Christmas, they will enjoy the other Christmas all the more – and so will you!
Singing in the choir I will feel Christmas in Stow, Fountainhall and Heriot – how lucky am I?

It’s a great story, even although, like the “Titanic”, we know the tragic ending. As I have said before, “Christmas was made in Bethlehem not China”. Merry Christmas to everybody.

Sandy Aitchison