Christmas & a Siren.

This is a friend of mine who is a Pastor of a church in east London, in December 2020 he took to the streets of Canning town with a guitar to sing carols on the high street. Amidst the sounds of cars, horns and the chatter of people, he gently strums and sings the familiar refrain:
“Hark! The herald-angels sing,
Glory to the new-born king”.
Then, fittingly, he is almost drowned out by a series of sirens as several emergency vehicles pass him by.
Almost inaudible, the faint tune continues and the words
“Christ, by highest heaven adored,
Christ, the everlasting Lord.”
pour forth.

A song of everlasting salvation and joy, amidst a backdrop of emergency and strife.
In front of a barred building, ignored by the pedestrians, swallowed in the noise and hurry of a busy street, a soft song of hope continues on & on & on.

What a fitting metaphor for Christmas and the Salvation of Jesus.
Gritty, real, dirty, amidst chaos and strife.
Christmas is not a neat story, it does not come to us tied up with a bow, It is a dark and desperate story.
Christmas is the gritty reality of life on earth, it is the embodiment of human tragedy with little hope of triumph.

Christmas gives Christians, a song of hope to sing as the sirens blare, as the hurried world ticks and turns, as the cars rush and the people ignore.

In the midst of it all. through the tears and cries
A meek and mild baby, a nobody boy, a poor family and a teenage mother.
and yet we sing

”Born that Men no more may die;
Born to raise the sons of Earth,
Born to give them second Birth.”