麻豆约拍

A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with the Rev Canon Dr Jennifer Smith

Good morning.

Each year, it seems like the pre-Christmas marketing season starts earlier and earlier. Artificial trees and snow displays are already creeping into shop windows, the colour of packaging has turned red and gold, and the rush is on.

The market near me already has metres of tinsel on display and stacks of boxes of that most old fashioned thing, the Christmas card.

Of course many people who used to send Christmas or holiday cards now opt for a mass electronic greeting , in the name of reducing paper waste and saving on postage. Sometimes the greeting will even include a note saying to which charity the sender has given the cost of postage. This is of course a good and worthy thing, and I would be a churlish friend to complain.

And yet, there is something about knowing someone sat and took time and care to remember us that warms the heart. By time and care to remember us, I mean not just with a mouse click, but by choosing cards and buying stamps, digging out our actual street address, and sitting down to do that less and less usual thing, write by hand.

Ironically, when Henry Cole sent Christmas cards in 1843, increasing their fashion, he intended them to be a time saver. Using the convenience of the Victorian penny post, one could send greetings all across the land with hardly any effort at all!

We need not rush the holiday season, but it is never too early to remember our friends.

Dear God, in our time poor, cash strapped society, may we find tangible ways of remembering one another. Help us to begin even now, today and not to wait - that no one be forgotten.

Amen.

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