Not a blog from the boat, but the next best thing as we are in a house overlooking the sea in Suffolk. It sleeps 12 and we were going to be here with various family members but gradually, for one reason or another (think covid!) the numbers have dwindled to three so we are rattling around! Yesterday P our son spent most of his waking day sat strumming his guitar, making melodies of well known Christmas songs as we, with a warm fire in the grate, relaxed and chilled out, devoid of the usual frenetic Christmas preparations. Tomorrow, with the revised covid rules and negative lateral flow tests, we may double to 6! Last year we bubbled up with our daughter in Tier 4, just the three of us. The pandemic has certainly changed for many the notion of a large Christmas family gathering. I am seriously thinking of allocating a summer date for our family ‘Christmas’ get together – at least this gives us the option of a feasible outside venue! Times change and we have to learn to adapt, to let go of our usual habits and traditions and embrace the new. Life events happen that force us to do things differently and it’s not always easy.
A pivotal time for me was having our first baby. Everything changed! To begin with the responsibility was overwhelming and I would awake in the night not sure if I was up to the task, at times resentful of my lost independence. Suddenly there was someone who totally relied upon me, who I was responsible for and my selfish nature had to adapt! I was just thankful to have a loving, supportive partner to share the load.
Christmas is an obvious time to think about babies – a baby afterall is central to the Christmas story and nativity plays wouldn’t be the same without one. It’s all very heartwarming and uplifting, as indeed are most births that we hear of. But what happens next? In the Christmas story we never dwell on what it must have been like for Mary and Joseph to raise Jesus. Imagine having to flee with a newborn, become refugees in a strange country before eventually returning home to rebuild your life and family. The responsibility of keeping Jesus safe and well, providing good food on the table to nourish him and his siblings. Coping with the ups and downs of family life that we all face, Mary and Joseph included. I doubt Mary had much time to pursue her own interests such as we like to do – maybe exercising or enjoying time with friends. How I wonder did she feel – overwhelmed at times, like many of us? The only difference for Mary was Jesus, because we know, as God’s son, he was a reflection of God’s love – kind, thoughtful, selfless, patient, infact the perfect human being. Jesus was transformative. His very nature touched anyone that he came into contact with, teaching them how to love others selflessly.
So to me, that’s the heart of the Christmas story. Emmanuel – ‘God with us’, sharing our highs and our lows. We too can be transformed by God’s love growing within us, (the ‘I’ crossed out, as my dad used tño say) actively sharing it, so that even in small ways each of us can change our bit of the world for the better. This Christmastime, whatever we are facing and whereever we are, may we experience God’s peace, joy and love in our hearts, enough to be transformative to those around us.
NarrowboatTLC 