I am looking forward to seeing the back of 2023. The last few months have weighed heavily on my heart and on my soul. This is the first time in many years I haven’t sent any Christmas cards to friends or neighbours. I haven’t put up a Christmas tree, a seasonal ritual that is designed to bring a little warmth and cheer into the dark winter evenings. Because no matter how many lights we turn on, how many candles we burn, the darkness that surrounds us, isn’t one that can be eradicated by candles, fairy lights, tinsel and baubles.
In 2014, as party of a Christian -Muslim programme, I visited the Holy Lands and one of the many places I visited was The Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, built on the site where according to Christian tradition, it is believed Mary gave birth to Jesus. For reasons that require no explanation, Christmas this year has been cancelled in Bethlehem. A land in turmoil. A land witnessing much death, misery and destruction. The cynic in might say, well obviously no one wants to travel to an area of ongoing conflict so cancelling Christmas might be a sound business decision and one based on common sense. But I would like to believe it is more than that. I would like to believe it is because we are being reminded that Jesus too was born into a world where children were being massacred by a tyrant, where a family had to flee their home with nothing, with nowhere to go, in search of a place of safety and security.
I hope and pray that 2024 brings peace to the world and comfort to the bereaved. I pray those being held to ransom are released and world leaders find a solution that leads us out of this very dark period in world history.
Wishing you and your families peace and goodwill this Christmas. Praying for peace and for the safety of all our children.
On Children
And a woman who held a babe against her bosom said
“Speak to us of children”
Your children are not your children
They are the sons and daughters of life’s longing for itself
They come through you but not from you
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you
You may give them your love but not your thoughts
For they have their own thoughts
You may house their bodies but not their souls
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow
Which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams
You may strive to be like them
But seek not to make them like you
For life goes not backward, nor tarries with yesterday
You are the bows from which your children
As living arrows are sent forth
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite
And he bends you with his might
That his arrows may go swift and far
Let your bending in the archer’s hand be for gladness
For even as he loves the arrow that flies
So he loves also the bow that is stable
From The Prophet By Khalil Gibran
Soulful Spaces 