Here is my Christmas message – found in our local social media (Kinderlsey Social.ca).
50 years hence
I’m working with a group of young adults. We’re preparing a paper for a research conference at Ambrose University. The theme is “The World After Tomorrow”, a perfect opportunity to look ahead fifty years. I may not be on this planet, but these young adults will be. They’ll be into retirement, if there is such a thing in 50 years, and looking back on past happenings.
For now? We live in “carpe diem” (seize the day). We fight for food, and pleasure, and good working conditions. We abhor sexual slavery and harassment, conflict of interests and unfair advantages.
50 years from now? On the optimistic side, our region could become the paradise of the future. Warming trends in climate could create an ideal atmosphere for the comfortable. We could become hospitality-central, friendly and sociable, open to others and safe for habitation.
But then, there are predictions of cynicism. Oil prices change, housing prices fluctuate, the economy perches on a precarious precipice. The farm of today may be replaced by a corporation of slice and dice efficiency, with little of the look of today’s farm. Government may be ruled by algorithms – the highest good for the greatest number.
How do we break from a senseless trap of helplessness and hopelessness?
We break away! From those whose destructive condition of life seeps into ours. We break away! From a political stance that is more pandering to others than for the good of the people. We break away! From our own self-sufficiency, and turn to others and to God for support.
God didn’t just happen to slip into this equation on a whim. There is wisdom in remembering with appreciation your creator. There is wisdom in listening attentively to your maker. There is wisdom in obeying your creator’s scheme for this life.
Which is why Christmas reverses our onward plunge to despair. In the story of Christmas there is a creator, a counselor, a governor, a person who erases the bad and restores the good.
Maybe that’s a good enough reason to keep Christmas recycling each year. The echoes continue to reverberate when you hear that Jesus is vitally concerned with you – your current condition, and with your condition fifty years from now!
Jesus’ story begins as a baby and ends with . . . well the story doesn’t really end. In the story of Christmas, Jesus is still watching, protecting, inviting, initiating, creating, comforting, rejuvenating, laughing, strengthening, surprising, upsetting the bad and restoring the good, bringing peace and joy.