COM M E N T WITH EYES WIDE OPEN JIM DEEDS
New life will always win out
THE CENTRAL MESSAGE OF CHRISTMAS IS WE ARE NEVER ALONE, GOD IS WITH US. IT IS A MESSAGE OF HOPE AND NEW LIFE, MADE INCARNATE IN A NEW-BORN BABY
Some
years ago, at the start of summer, I walked out into our back garden and looked upwards towards the mountains that overlook us here in West Belfast. Spring had done its work and the summer heat was bringing that work forward in the creation of deep greens and golden yellows all over the mountain. Such vibrant colours and such sights are good for the eyes. I had promised myself that I would take a walk through the fields on the mountain that afternoon. I looked up to survey the beauty I would soon be in amongst. However, the sight that greeted me that day was very different from the one I had expected. Someone or some people had started a fire on the mountain and it was raging right across the fields and hedgerows and bushes. Thick, black smoke oozed upward, emanating from bright red and orange flames. That I could see the flames so clearly at distance told me that this was a huge fire. I looked on; helpless, worried and sad. I had spent many hours walking through the area that was now burning. I knew the amount of wildlife that dwelt up there. I also knew how devastated the land would be. Birds, rabbits, hares and other creatures would lose their young as they had built their nests right where the flames and smoke were wreaking havoc. That it was a fire that had been set on purpose made the devastation all the worse to look upon. In the course of the next four days emergency services battled the fire in places, although some of the area is unreachable by fire appliances and
the fire had to be allowed to burn itself out. Once it had, the majority of the side of the mountain where I usually walked sat burnt brown and black. Long gone were the verdant greens and golden yellows. It was a sorry sight indeed. 2020 comes to an end soon. In many ways, the year 2020 has been like the fire that ravaged my beloved mountain. It has brought devastation to many – through illness and disconnection, through the virus and the ensuing restrictions that have been so difficult for us all. What once would have been the ‘green’ moments in life were burnt out and blackened. We think about birthdays not celebrated, sacraments experienced outside of our normal community experience, churches closed, and families even left to grieve separately from each other. We have lived through a year that will be forever written of, studied and learned from. Yes, 2020 will come to an end – but not before Christmas happens. I was bemused when, in late autumn,
I began to hear people talking of their worry that ‘Christmas might be cancelled’. How, I wondered, could Christmas be cancelled? I understand that many of the celebrations associated with Christmas will, indeed, be curtailed or even cancelled. But Christmas itself? Cancelled? To think this is perhaps to miss the genius point of Christmas itself. Now, I am not going to dismiss or nullify the importance of the celebrations and gatherings people have over Christmas. I love them myself; red wine and mince pies and all! However, these things, important and enjoyable as they are in and of themselves, are not what makes Christmas. It is, of course, a moment for the world to consider a wonderful notion – that God became incarnate, became one of us, visited us here on earth, in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, born into a world of poverty, political upheaval and religious fervour. Christmas, in the retelling of the story of the Nativity, tells us the story of all things. It tells us that God is with us yet, for even
though we celebrate Christmas on December 25, the incarnation of God is not limited to one day, once per year. It is true for all time. That, my friends, cannot be cancelled. And no matter how devastating the year 2020 has been or how uncertain the year 2021 may seem to us, the central message of Christmas is one that brings solace – we are never alone, God is with us. It is a message of hope and new life, made incarnate in a new-born baby. I walked through the fields on the mountain a week or so after the fire. They still smelled of smoke and destruction. It was a dull and lifeless place. I found myself despairing. “Things will never be good here again” was a thought that echoed inside me. How wrong I was! Over the course of the next months, as summer gave way to autumn and autumn to winter, the most marvellous thing happened. The charred black fields began to change colour. They lightened up into a dark brown and then a light brown and, even as winter descended, shoots of light green and yellow could be seen. By spring of the next year, it was as if the fire had not happened. New life always wins out. May this Christmas and New Year be a blessed time for you all where you find connections to others in the most meaningful way possible. And may the message of the Christchild ring out for all to hear – God is with us and new life will always win out. Belfast man Jim Deeds is a poet, author, pastoral worker and retreat-giver working across Ireland.
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