Thank God, He came

BY RICHARD Dwight

THE nippy breezes wafting through the swaying, palms, the chirping of birds frolicking in the trees and the carefree laughter of children at play, were to me the herald that the season of 'Peace and Goodwill' was upon us.

Every year at this time for a month or more, when the long nights are chilly and the days brighter, nature adorns itself with a special kind of beauty, a beauty which inclines the heart to peace, to harmony and to love. Yes indeed, there is a song in the air and the spirit of festivity grips one and all.

But deep down in our hearts we realise that Christmas soars higher and is much more than the wave upon wave of crackers, the decorations. The upsurge in shoppers and the round of gay parties.

For it is a time when we rejoice giving thanks to God for His wonderful gift of love. In a sense it is because of this matchless gift that Christians symbolically give and receive gifts during the season.

With this thought uppermost in my mind, I paused for a while the other day to think what it would be like if Jesus had never come.

As I reflected upon this, there came to my mind the story of a clergyman who fell into a short sleep in His study on Christmas morning and dreamt of a world into which Jesus had never come.

In this dream he found himself looking through His home, but there were no Christmas delights, no gifts, no decorations and no Christ to comfort, gladden and save. He got on to the street but there was no church with its spire pointing to heaven.

He came back and sat down in his library, but every book about the saviour had disappeared. A messenger asked him to visit a poor dying mother. He hastened with the weeping child and as he reached the home he sat down and said "I have something here that will comfort you."

He opened his Bible to look for a familiar promise, but it ended at Malachi, and there was no gospel and no promise of hope and salvation, and he could only bow his head and weep with her in bitter despair.

Two days afterwards he stood beside her coffin and conducted the funeral service, but there was no message of consolation, no word of a glorious resurrection, no open heaven, but only "dust to dust, ashes to ashes" and one long eternal farewell.

He realised at length that "He had not come" and burst into tears and bitter weeping in his sorrowful dream.

Suddenly he woke with a start, and a great shout of joy and praise burst from his lips as he heard the choir in his church close by singing "O Come, all ye faithful joyful and triumphant O, come ye, O come ye to Bethlehem.

The reason therefore for rejoicing at this time, is primarily because he left his fathe's throne in order to manifest his love and to win the souls of dying men.

When Jesus came to earth, He did not come to destroy but brought love and joy and peace to those who welcomed him. The sad thing is that there were many who refused to welcome Him.

The misery in the world today is because men still shun him and his way of life. The world at first was intended to be the dwelling place of one happy family, where men help each other, but selfishness has turned it into a place of fear and suspicion.

In the midst of this strife-torn and often cruel world in turmoil, the committed Christian lives with the hope, the expectancy, and the joy and, is at peace with himself and the world. Well might he in gratitude exclaim: Thank God! He Came!