Let not Christ be lost in the glitter of Christmas – Ptr. Manohar Pathak

Lalitpur, December 25-

We wish a Merry Christmas to all our readers and supporters on the occasion of Christmas!

The scribe had the blessed experience of celebrating Christmas today at Kathmandu Jyoti Church in Sainbu, Lalitpur.

The celebration consisted of worship, sharing of Word, children dance, specials song and dance, as well as a time of fun facts, games and prizes (where attendees were challenged about their love and care for their parents, spouse, and other minor things that called for presence of mind) and greetings messages.

Efficiently emceed by Elder Deepak Shah, the programme started with some Christmas songs and hymns, and after worship, pastor Manohar Pathak, chair of Butwal Jyoti Church Council, shared a challenging message with a brief background information and practice from Butwal about engaging with the community without.

In particular, his anecdote about the birthday celebration of a child was powerfully awakening! Once a child’s first birthday was held where many people came to the house of the parents. The mother of the child had places a shawl upon the sleeping baby to keep him just warm enough while the adults were enjoying eating and drinking. One of the early guests mistakenly thought the cot where the child was  places was for placing the coats and overcoats for the time they spent there, so he placed his coat on the sleeping child. Other guests followed suit.

Finally, after hours of merriment, someone asked, “Where is the baby whose birthday we are celebrating?” Only then did the mother remember him sleeping in the other room, and hurried thither to bring him in. But alas, the poor child was already dead and cold, suffocated by the weight of the coats and overcoats unknowingly placed upon him!

The challenge and moral of the story was: Let us be watchful, lest we miss the real meaning of Christmas, miss the importance of the fact that God the Son assumed humanity so as to save us from our sins.

So, there it is, the central message of Christmas: God so loves the world that God the Son came to live and die in our stead, so we may be forgiven our sins His righteousness be imputed upon us.

May the shalom of God- reconciliation, peace, order and the resultant flourishing- be a reality for each one of us beginning this Christmas and for eternity- this is our prayer and desire for all.

A Merry Christmas indeed!

The guest