A Modern Christmas Carol

Here are some stray thoughts distilled down following the Christmas Tree festival that I attended this morning in town. We met, shared fellowship, sang carols to share together that old, familiar story. It was during the singing of one particular carol at that venue that I felt God really spoke to me, challenging me to face up to tackling an old familiar adversary in my life. And reminding me of yet another old familiar story...

It's the story of a miserly old man named Ebenezer Scrooge, who is just about surviving in a harsh economic climate. It's a particularly heavy winter this year, and despite having nearby family Scrooge deliberately sits alone, working until late in his counting-house. Relatives and friends try in vain to invite him to some seasonal festivities,but he simply can't see the point, he's too wrapped up in his own problems. Some visitors to his door receive a less than polite reply, loaded with bitterness and resentment. “Bah! Humbug!”

It takes a series of encounters with some supernatural beings to snap Scrooge out of his current cycle of bitter resentment and to instill a truly life-changing experience, just in time for Christmas.

I think I'd like to revisit this story again next week. Sounds like there's something I need to take from this...