Christmas under Omicron

by Emma Major

I was asked to create a video for Premier Digital for Christmas, a reflection on the year gone by and the Christmas season. I said yes, knowing I had all sorts of things I could talk about, but when I sat down to right it I felt overwhelmed.

• Where do you start with a Christmas message in a pandemic?

• Where do you go when we don't even know what the rules might be tomorrow, let alone next week.

• What do I say when I'm still processing everything that's gone on, especially when my advice to people is to take life a day at a time and try not to worry too much about what has gone and what will come.

Of course I could share about the way disabled and chronically ill people have been abandoned by society, expected to start shut away or make their own decisions about their safety.

Or I could talk about the joy of a baby born to an ordinary family at Christmas to transform the world; about how we need to value ordinary families and ensure that no child goes hungry, but I feel like I'm speaking into a void.

I could talk about the environment and how we're meant to be stewards of the world, caring for creation instead of taking everything we can for profit and greed.

Or I could talk about the power of online community and how people have met together to pray and learn and support each other.

There are so many things I could talk about but they all seem to big. I haven't formulated have the words yet to go much beyond - what does Jesus say we should do?

But then I woke with the rhythm of the poem "The night before Christmas" going round my head and some of these thoughts started taking form in a new poem. As I worked on the poem I doodled about the word Christmas and a picture emerged, which with time lapse capture became a video. So I'm trusting that this is what I'm meant to share this Christmas, I hope it touches you and those you share it with.

May your Christmas be blessed and 2022 be a time of faithfulness, love and peace.

Emma xxx

'Twas the week before Christmas 2021 Poem

'Twas the week before Christmas and all through the land

Nobody was daring to make solid plans

All of us longing to gather together

To heal the pain of being untethered

But our minds cast back to last year's separation

We can't face more cancelled celebrations

Throughout this year we've all of us faced

Challenges similar all over the place

Yet every morning the sun lights the sky

Reminding us all to keep our hopes high

To keep our eyes fixed on the message from God

A boy born on Earth, to teach how to love

Jesus knew, the pain of our lives

The grief and hurt, the struggle and strife

His repeated message was to care for all

Those in pain, the sick and the poor

Caring for Creation, as stewards of the Earth

Valuing everyone's integral worth

The last two years have taught us a lot

That what really matters is not what we've bought

But how we care for those on our street

The compassion we show for strangers we meet

Relationships matter, both near and far

Loving our neighbour the lowest of bar

This Christmas season, let's pause and breathe

Take time to thank God, for blessings received

Then turn our prayers out to the world

Asking what WE can do for young and for old

Let's look ahead with hope and purpose

Make 2022 one of the fairest