Christmas message

Pastor Dermoth Baptiste, President, Seventh-Day Adventist Church

The moving hand of time has brought us once again to that celebrated period of the year known as Christmas, the time when there is a flurry of activities and increased preparation in anticipation of this looked

forward to occasion. As the Christian community celebrates Christmas again this year, it is yet another reminder of God’s marvelous condescension in human form to this rebellious earth to show us that He is not mad with our waywardness, but is longsuffering, forbearing, forgiving and always willing to restore the broken relationship that sin has brought to the human family.{{more}}

As we reflect on our personal, family and national life again this year, there are painful scars, distressing blemishes and sorrowful reminders of the horrendous consequences of sin, such as the unnatural slaughtering of human beings by those who place little or no value on the sanctity of life and the calamitous destruction of property and infrastructure due to excessive rainfall. Equally, there is enormous evidence of the unfathomable love, matchless mercy and graciousness of the Father to his creation, such as the life that we now have and the provision for its sustainability, the freedom of choice to make informed decisions and the Gospel invitation to experience transformation by beholding the Father, full of Grace and Truth. It is in this increased tension between good and evil, known as the great controversy, that we find ourselves celebrating this Christmas.

Christmas is much more than tinsel, or snow, or sleigh bells, or glittering gifts on Christmas trees. It is much more than Nine Mornings activities, shopping and entertainment. It is not about exalting Santa Claus, excessive feasting and abuses to the body by consumption of alcohol or other injurious substances. Rather, it is about recognizing our fallen state as God’s creation and renewing our love and affection to Him as we accept His supremacy and lordship over our lives.

Christmas means forgetting self and remembering those who have no Christmas. It means leaving our “little heavens,” as Jesus left His big heaven to visit those who need help and who need to hear a message of peace and hope and cheer. It means the bright eyes of little abandoned children made glad by a demonstration of unselfish love.

Christmas means revived hope in the hearts of fathers and mothers who, because of some tragedy, had lost hope of giving their family members something to look forward to, until a modern good Samaritan came along with a gift of food. Christmas means that Kindness is “Queen for a Day,” and what a happier world she makes for which we cannot help wishing that she would rule the world every day of the year. What transformations are wrought by kindness! It turns hovels of hate into havens of happiness!

Christmas means that a hard, cruel, selfish, war-weary world looks for a brief time into the face of God. It looks into a manger and sees the face of a little babe. It sees a fleeting vision of what a little babe can do to make a better world. It hears for a moment the song of the angels, singing: “On earth peace, good will toward men.” It sees businessmen forget the profit they planned to get and begin to plan to give. And how many suddenly discover that we make a living by what we get but we make a life by what we give! Christmas should help many people begin to live!

Christmas causes prodigal sons and daughters to pause in their wayward, downward course and think of mother and father and be welcomed home again. It is about little remembrances sent to revive hope in the hearts of lonely, needy ones waiting by the mailbox or the Customs for packages.

Christmas means we have heard the music of the bells of love. It means we have smelled the fragrance of the rose of love. Christmas means we can still feel the power of the love of God in our world and in our lives. It is the only time of the year that some hearts open to let Him in. O that we would make every day Christmas! May the Living Christ find a permanent dwelling place in our hearts, our homes and our land this Christmas season!

On behalf of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, I wish the nation of St Vincent and the Grenadines a blessed holiday season and a bright, prosperous and Christ-sustained New Year.