A Very COVID Christmas

A Mellow Gold

by Debbie Loh Yuin Mei, PJN3

The future, an unknown. A fog wraps itself like cobwebs around old, obsolete dreams A dense overgrown ivy grips and overshadows the castles in the air Casting itself as more beautiful than the wistful ruins that is Tomorrow.

But take heart Today brims with a mellow gold And yesterday, a treasure chest of memories and stories, and history, and seeds sown Noble desires long disposed now shimmy up your knee “Perhaps now you have time for me,” Now that the urgencies of the novel have crumbled away Now that the fancies of tomorrow have ceased their clamouring We blow off the dust our yearnings for goodness and God, which is the crown of our species called Humanity.

When tomorrow has failed us We have the Ancient of Days The Great Today The Great I Am.

On October 6, Malaysia experienced our first spike in COVID-19 numbers after a quiet and fortunate lull. We had returned to in-person church services and begun to enjoy being with our friends again, and things were starting to look up. Maybe things would get better for Malaysians, maybe we could start planning concretely for the future again, maybe we could travel again. Maybe.

But, as the news reports came in after the Sabah elections, and the COVID-19 numbers in Sabah and Kedah climbed, all such hopes were dashed and the future was once again plunged into uncertainty.

It was on this day that I put these words to my thoughts. Here, there is an irony that words meant for old things (cobwebs and overgrown ivy) were used to describe what had happened to aspirations for the new. It is an irony that the dreams of today have gone old and obsolete. But, that is what we face today.

The answer is not to invent new dreams, but to hold on to what we do have – today. Today is what we can behold to make right decisions and live a life towards God. Today is what we can change because we can do things differently.

We also have behind us a treasure trove of history. As someone with a keen interest in history, the past is not obsolete, but holds but gold. The Bible is historical, yet it is alive today. We can see the hand of God work in our lives in retrospect if only we would slow down and look back.

Perhaps, now that our pursuits have reached a grinding halt, we can return to what we have always wanted to do deep within us: to spend time with God, our loved ones, and the things God is calling us to do.

Perhaps it is a blessing that the future is uncertain, because now we can finally turn our faces to God, who is with us today as He has always been through the corridors of history. And once our faces are cast upon Him, He will lead us on to tomorrow.

We can see the hand of God work in our lives in retrospect if only we would slow down and look back.

A Very

Christmas

by Alex Tung, PJN1

When news of the COVID-19 pandemic first made its rounds at the beginning of the year, we could not have imagined that its effect would last this long. Yet, as we approach the end of the year, reports of the pandemic’s impact remain on every news outlet’s headlines. From governments and economists to schoolteachers and chefs, everyone’s life has been turned upside-down and nothing is left the same. Nonetheless, it is perhaps only in these last couple of months that it has occurred to us that the pandemic is also going to significantly change Christmas this year.

Perhaps it is due to the uncertainty or perhaps it is simply because we remain exhausted from the year that has been, but it is only in these recent weeks that supermarkets, high street retail chains, travel companies and F&B outlets have started to report that they are bracing for their worst Christmas season in decades. What would have, in past years, been the highlight of annual sales is now looking grim and bleak. For these businesses, Christmas this year is hardly about surpassing last year’s sales target, rather it is about pulling through this season without going into bankruptcy. For many, this is hardly the season to be jolly. Hymns and carols, if they be sung by a choir this Christmas, would not sound the same from masked carollers standing six feet apart. Christmas this year is indeed going to be a very different one.

The church is likewise not spared from these changes. For starters, attending Christmas worship and celebration will likely be a fully virtual affair. Any Christmas productions, musicals or skits would also be similarly enjoyed in front of a screen rather than in person. Church attendance which would typically see a surge during Christmas would remain a flat line as most churches remain closed. With such a bleak outlook for the next few months, it unfortunately seems like Christmas this year would be an unprecedentedly inconspicuous event. Christmas, after all, is not meant to be a quiet affair – or is it?

Lest we be sold to commercialisation and view Christmas only as a celebration of retail therapy, big-budgeted productions and year-end bonuses and vacations, let us be reminded that the first Christmas – yes, the very first Christmas, the Christmas when Jesus was born – was not filled with all the festive trappings that we associate with Christmas today. Instead, the very first Christmas was a very understated and humble event. The event of Jesus’ birth was not attended by a congregation numbering thousands and there was no elaborate worship band playing in the background. No, that first Christmas was an inconspicuous affair, attended by only a handful of people, and observed to celebrate only one thing – the birth of our King.

The global economic slowdown might very well be the catalyst we need to re-examine our own expectations of Christmas. Perhaps with this quieter Christmas, we have the opportunity to re-establish what Christmas truly means. With this Christmas season looking less boisterous, let us take the opportunity to quieten down emotionally and spiritually, and be reacquainted with what Christmas originally meant. With less Christmassy commitments and errands, and more time on our hands, why not attempt that advent devotional you have earmarked? With less Christmas shopping and meals to attend, organise or host, why not consider giving more of our time and resources to those whose Christmas is significantly bleaker than ours?

The point is this: a quieter Christmas this year can allow us more time for introspection and to intentionally move away from consumerism. With less noise, we can choose to tune in more directly to God’s whisper into our lives and seek Him more diligently. And with more time and resources, we can opt to be a greater blessing to others, whether monetarily or through our investment of time.

AN OUTWARD-LOOKING NON-NARCISSISTIC CHRISTMAS

If our main discontent with Christmas this year remains the fact that we cannot celebrate, have fellowship and revel as we did in past years, then be reminded that we are having it good. As joblessness and pay-cuts are on the rise, many in our midst are bound for a much worse Christmas season than us. For those who are more badly affected than us, their discontent is not about giving their favourite Christmas roast gathering a miss, rather it is how to continue feeding their families for the foreseeable future.