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Welcome to Christ Church, Blacklands & St. Andrew, Laton Road, Hastings
From Canon John Fletcher:
BY THE LIGHT OF A STAR……………………
The Christmas Festival celebrates God’s great gift to the human race – the birth of Jesus to be the Saviour of the world. Epiphany which follows on January 6th celebrates our gifts to God, symbolized in the treasures which the Wise Men presented to the child Jesus. Though their arrival in Bethlehem probably occurred sometime later - traditionally we usually include them as characters in the Christmas drama.
One of the most charming stories I have read was written by a father whose wife went Christmas shopping one afternoon and left him to look after the children. Suddenly they disturbed his peace by announcing “Daddy, we have a play to put on. Do you want to see it?” Daddy didn’t, but he knew he would have to; so he went into the living room and sat down – a one-man audience.
He saw that it was a Nativity play. At the foot of the piano stall was a lighted torch wrapped in some material lying in a shoe box. Rex (age 6) came in wearing daddy’s bathrobe and carrying a mop-handle, followed by Nancy (age 10) who announced, “I’m Mary and this is Joseph.” Then Trudy (age 4) entered with pillow cases over her arms which she waved about saying, “I am an angel”. Finally, in came Anne (age 8) riding a camel. At least, she moved as though she was riding a camel, because she had on her mother’s high-heeled shoes. She was bedecked in all the jewellery available and carried a pillow laden with certain items. She bowed before the ‘Holy Family’ and announced, “I am all three Wise Men. I bring precious gifts: gold, circumstance and mud.”
That was all. The play was over. Daddy did not laugh. He prayed as he thought just how near his little daughter had come to the truth. We can sometimes live our lives stressed and burdened down with gold and all that gold represents. Under the circumstances we can do no other, circumstances of our time and place and custom; and, as the father said, writing his article, “it all seems a bit like mud when we think of it.” Then he looked at the shining faces of his children and suddenly remembered that a child showed us how these things can be transformed – gold eternally blessed, circumstances infused with Divine meaning, and even mud made into something you can build with; the whole range of human life, symbolized in the gifts of the Wise Men, redeemed when we lay it at the Manger of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
John Fletcher