Christmas thoughts

Christmas is a time to pause and reflect on the hope and life that Jesus brings. It is also a time to share and we'd love to share some thoughts with you this Christmas. We've compiled thoughts from this year and previous years for you to read through or share with friends and family.

A Christmas full of meaning

Christmas is full of meaning for each of us. It’s a time to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, a time to reflect on the year just gone and a time to share with others.

Sadly, the true meaning of Christmas is often lost in the holiday season. This Christmas, we are praying that you will experience the hope that embodies the real reason for the festivities.

Jesus Christ is not just the baby whose birthday we celebrate each Christmas. He was a gift from God, put on this earth to offer freedom to live life to the full for anyone who wants it. He didn’t stay in the manger as a tiny baby – he grew up - and changed the world.

Jesus offers pure love, transforming freedom and abundant life to all of us. So let this Christmas be one of hope for you, your family and your friends.

If you would like to find out more about Jesus, head over to our Light of the World pages to discover more about how he can enrich your life and free you from fear, worry, doubt and insecurity.

How relevant is the Christmas story for the 21st century?

A message from The Salvation Army's General Linda Bond

It is celebrated every year with carols, trees, glitter, lights and gifts, but is the coming of Jesus into the world of any significance for such a time as this?

More than 2000 years separate us. Where are the points of connection? The answer becomes clear when we look at two groups that played a central role in the first Christmas – the wise men and the shepherds. The two groups have often been contrasted, emphasising the differences of occupation, religious background and learning. However, what they have in common may be what relates to us now.

Both groups were men of reflection, the wise men studying the heavens, looking for signs; the shepherds with their long evening hours thinking of their occupied homeland and wondering when the promised Messiah would come. Surely there was an expectation that something would happen, must happen, to bring peace to the world. Would such reflection give birth to hope? I think so.

Both groups experienced a divine intervention – a revelation. The shepherds were visited by an angelic host announcing the birth of the Saviour of the world. The wise men saw a star which became their guiding light to lead them to the Christ child. These two groups of very different men responded to the supernatural events and moved out of their comfort zones. Both shepherds and wise men took the divine signs seriously. An action of faith was needed and they took it.

God never disappoints. For both groups, the realisation was all that God had promised. The Saviour King was born. And whether it was kneeling at a manger or giving gifts to the child, shepherds and wise men all saw the face of God, the face of love in Jesus, Saviour of the world!

This past year has been a time of unparalleled natural disasters, economic troubles and political upheavals. For such a time as this, reflecting on this world and perhaps even our own needs, there could be cause for despair. Yet Christmas is about hope, as it was 2000 years ago. Jesus not only came, he lived and died for the world. And he lives today! That gives us hope.

We may not see a host of angels this Christmas or a guiding star, but God will come to each one of us in a discernible way, as he did to the shepherds and the wise men. We may choose to conclude that it is just the annual spirit of Christmas, but it is God making himself known to us. How we react to it will be a matter of faith, a case of rising from our watch in the fields or following the star, so to speak.
And if we do leave our comfort zone to seek the God who seeks us, we will discover that he is real, just as the shepherds and the wise men did.

He is love. We are loved.

The Saviour of the world came to earth many years ago, but he also comes today to us, to you, to me.

Signs of hope, love and peace

A message from The Salvation Army's Commissioner James Condon

We recently celebrated two birthdays in our family. Firstly the birthday of our grandson, Callum, who was born on the 2nd November, 2010 and then our granddaughter, Ellie, who was born in London on the 8th December,2008

Neither of the birthday celebrations were held on the exact date. Celebration of birthdays are special, especially for children. We see the joy and wonderment on their faces.

Millions of people have been born on December 25 but nobody, except perhaps his parents, cared about the date on which Jesus was born, because in that period only the birth of very important people were recorded and the birth of this insignificant peasant child was unlikely to make the front page of the Bethlehem Chronicle or the Nazareth Herald, had they existed.

Most heroic leaders are remembered for the events and impact of their lives, not the date of their birth.

The very early church did not celebrate the birth of Christ, rather they focused on celebrating the resurrection of Christ and the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.

Today Christmas has become the best known Christian festival.

Yes, it's good to remember births and to celebrate the birth of Christ but let's not forget that the scripture that says, Christ has died. Christ has risen. Christ will come again. and celebrate all that he has done and who he was at Christmas, Easter and the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.

We may like to stop and ask the question, why do we celebrate the birth of Jesus at all? Christmas " the mass of Christ"

I think in this troubled world we need more signs of hope, love and peace and surely the celebration at the birth of Jesus reminds us that there is hope, there is love, there is peace.

Maybe not so much in the world, but surely much needed for us as individuals and granted by the coming Christ dwelling within us, finding his place in our lives.

A bigger picture for our lives

In many homes in Australia, planning for Christmas is well under way. Excitement is building. Children are anticipating gifts, probably placing orders. Mothers are planning the menu for Christmas dinner. Christmas cards are being prepared and mailed out to friends.

The commercial world has long been reminding us that another festive season approaches. The pre-Christmas specials, lay-bys, and more enticing money traps like "buy-now-pay-later", are all there to help us spend our money. Forecasters indicate that this will be a bigger spending spree than previous years, with profits reaching record proportions.

These aspects of Christmas dominate our time, energy and credit cards. But I feel compelled to ask: "Where is the real meaning of Christmas in all of this -- Jesus?"

Let's take a look at what it was like that very first Christmas. To start with, not everyone in Bethlehem knew about Jesus' coming. But from Joseph and Mary’s perspective, Jesus’ earthly parents, this significant event filled their whole world.

They weren’t ready for this; it took them right outside their comfort zone. They had been a quiet young couple going about their daily chores. Suddenly, they became so significant that we still write and speak of them more than 2000 years later. They were thrust into a big picture plan for their lives.

And God has a big picture plan for each of us. It starts with us having a little bit of faith in God and a little sensitivity to God walking with us in our lives. Like Mary and Joseph, it requires us taking a step out of our comfort zone.

This Christmas, I encourage you to take time out from the commercialisation of Christmas, and from the pressures of the season, to consider God’s personal plan for you.

Commissioner Les Strong (now retired)
Territorial Commander, Australia Eastern Territory

Jesus - God's indescribable gift

Are you behind with getting your Christmas cards sent off? If so, you will sympathise with the woman who rushed into the card shop just before Christmas, snapped up a packet of 50 identical cards, signed 49 of them, ran to the post office, and managed to get them into the last mail. It was only as she returned home that she looked more closely at the one remaining card in her hand. To her horror she discovered that the main text read:

This is just to say
A gift is on the way!

There were 49 disappointed people that Christmas!

But long before the first Christmas, God, through the prophets, had been sending out many such cards. Their message was always the same: 'A gift is on the way!'

'The virgin will be with child,' they proclaimed, 'and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel' (Isaiah 7:14) – God with us! 'For to us a child is born,' they said, 'to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace' (Isaiah 9:6). Rejoice! A gift is on the way!

And at the first Christmas there was no disappointment. As the day dawned, the gift arrived just as the prophets had said it would.

But not only did the gift arrive. To those with the eyes of faith the gift exceeded all expectation. The prophets had created huge anticipation. But not in their wildest imagination had their hearers thought that the promises would be fulfilled in the way they were.

Gifts are doubly precious when they exceed our expectation. When my wife, Freda, and I served in Chile our two young sons attended an American school. They learnt American history and geography, their friends were American, and they even spoke like Americans! Their great dream was to visit the USA one day and see it for themselves. And – unbeknown to them – the opportunity for us to spend some days there as a family suddenly opened up when Karl was 11 and Kevin was 10.

Freda and I decided we would make the visit a special Christmas present that year. We wrote on a card: 'A special gift – a visit to the USA next summer', put it in a small box, and covered the box with Christmas paper. We then put that box inside a bigger box, padding out the space with crunched newspaper, then covered that box, too, with Christmas paper. We repeated the procedure with an even bigger box, and then again and again and again – until the final box was bigger than the boys themselves. We put the giant box by the Christmas tree some days before Christmas. It was clearly labelled 'To Karl and Kevin'. And the process of guessing its contents began!

We saw them lifting up the box, checking its weight, wondering what it could possibly contain, making wild guesses. Huge parcels create huge expectations – and we could see it happening. And then Christmas arrived. Ignoring all the other unopened gifts, at the appointed hour the boys headed straight for the monster box and began tearing off the Christmas paper. They were a bit surprised to find that inside the box was a smaller one that also needed opening – and another and another. But they soon got the idea. Their excitement and expectation kept growing – but as the boxes got smaller and smaller I began to detect a note of anxiety in their reactions. Perhaps the gift wasn't so special after all. I even wondered for a moment whether we had overdone the drama.

But then they reached the small final box. They opened it, took out the card, read it, looked at us – and then went wild! They let out whoops of joy! They jumped up and down! And as we told them of the places we would visit in the USA their joy and excitement knew no bounds. They wanted to share the news with their friends as soon as possible. Never in their wildest imagination had they thought that the box would contain such a gift. The gift had exceeded their greatest expectations!

It was just like that on the first Christmas morning when the gift of God to the world was revealed. Through their words, the prophets had built up immense anticipation. But that God's gift to the world would be his one and only Son exceeded all expectation. The angels went wild with joy. 'Glory to God in the highest', they sang. The shepherds glorified and praised God. And the world rejoiced. For the gift was literally 'Immanuel – God with us!'

Paul was not known for being short of words. But when he later reflected on what had happened on that Christmas morning, he could only exclaim: 'Thanks be to God for his gift beyond words!' (2 Corinthians 9:15 New English Bible). Jesus - God's indescribable gift! Jesus - God's gift that exceeded all expectation!

General John Larsson (now retired)

God's promised presence

Christmas Day is fast approaching and the colour and sounds of the festive season surround us. Amid the busyness, I hope you get some time to stop and take in the deeper significance of this special time of the year -- that you will experience the peace and joy of God being with us.

The story is told of a boy who was looking wistfully at a family photograph. The picture included his deceased father. The boy was heard to say, “I wish Daddy could step out of that picture and be with us again.”

In a nutshell, the boy’s response is the Christmas story. God loves his creation and, at just the right time in human history, chose to communicate this to men and women, girls and boys, by becoming one of us. This is the story of Christmas -- the beginning of the earthly life of Jesus Christ, God's promised presence with us forever -- as told in the Gospels of the New Testament.

May you know God's presence with you this Christmas and throughout the coming year. May you also know the blessing of putting your faith and trust in the Christ of Christmas. God loves you and calls you to this faith. It will transform your life.