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Four responses to Christmas - 3. Scrooge


While Santas are delirious with excitement and Shoppers are seizing the day by the use of a credit card, Scrooges take a much more dim view of the Christmas season.  It is not that they are cruel and uncaring, like Ebeneezer Scrooge in Charles Dickens' famous story, but they see the darker side of life of which Santas are blissfully unaware and which Shoppers are trying to ignore.  For some people, Christmas is a 'humbug'.

Perhaps someone close to them has died, whether that be recently or many years ago, and the 'happy family Christmas' images rub salt in the wound of their grief.  Perhaps money is very tight indeed, they have been refused credit and are simply wondering how they will put food on the table, let alone buy expensive Christmas gifts.  Perhaps they are depressed, and no amount of mince pies or carolling can lift the gloom in which they are living.  Perhaps life has been cruel to them, and other people's happiness is an insult.

These unhappy voices must be allowed to speak.  If Christmas is a festival of superficiality when we paper over the cracks with reindeer-print wrapping paper, then it really is a humbug.  People must be allowed to feel what they feel, even if it does kill the party mood a bit.  Many people are very sensitive to others' pain at Christmas, inviting people round who would otherwise be alone at Christmas, and donating to food banks and debt advice charities which seek to help people experiencing poverty.  But some kinds of pain cannot be easily soothed.

As someone who undertakes some pastoral visiting, there are times when I walk into a situation which is utterly desperate and the only thing I can do to help is turn up.  Yes, I offer people a listening ear, and I try to speak words of comfort, and I read from the Bible if that is what they want.  But I suspect that the most important thing is simply to be there - helpless, awkward, but present.  One of the best-loved names of Jesus is Immanuel - God with us.  I believe God does help us, sometimes miraculously, but the most important thing is his promise always to be with us.

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