This year, as winter deepened, my mind being much on Clare, who spent invalid years embroidering in bed, I was inspired to stitch some simple Christmas cards

And instinctively I reached for bright red, and rich green on white material..

Red, green, white.. The colours of Christmas!

Poinsettias, scarlet against green... . Christmas trees, evergreen......holly, dark, glossy green with bright red berries.......fireglow.......mistletoe, white berries, whitest snow...........

These are the colours of Christmas, traditional, inbuilt.....

One of the oldest carols; "The holly bears a berry, as red as any blood"... And the old carols, singing evocatively of apple trees, of cherries..of snow..The colours of Christmas, red, green, white.... Green; growing, springing... renewing..changing.. Red.....life-birthing, life-ending Green wood, chiselled and sawn into a manger ..........and a cross...

But no! You cry?
This is a family time? A warm and glowing time? For peace and comfort, feasting, love; all things pretty?
Not for death!

And, yes, it is that, all of that - but so much more than that. Comfort that is real and lasting, rather than illusory and cloying, needs must be founded on and grounded in truth and that fullness of reality that is truth

So, pause; think again!!
Please think again!
For if we sentimentalise and cosify Christmas; if we accept the gold, but not the myrrh, see the pretty baby, but not the pains of that bitter birth, surrounded with rejection and social stigma?
See the baby-who-is-God, but not the Man -who -Dies-as God?
We then deny the huge gift given, weaken the grace........trivialise and tame
that breathing Spirit, limit and deny God.....

Babies; so utterly vulnerable and needy. So defenceless, and defended. God, in that wooden manger, eliciting and evoking the deepest instincts in us.

And that birth but a beginning, but one stage, begun in the dark warmth of Mary's womb, of a life made to be given fully, in living, but above all in dying.
If it were not for the dying, there would be no rejoicing or thanksgiving in
the birthing.

Are we content to accept Him as that baby, accept Him as a vulnerable youngling? But not as the One-Who-Died our human death, rejected and scorned? Whose coming in our flesh saved us from all the ills and wrongs done by that flesh?

We then deny that gift.

For every birth is a death too; for death is an integral part of human life - the life that God sanctified by entering into its joys and its pains, all of them from conception to death.

We change; we grow. Baby into child into man...... tree into green leaf, then into red berry, and into manger and cross

Tiny stitches, criss-crossing white fabric with scarlet and green. The colours of Christmas. The green of promise; the crimson of fulfilment. In the old carols, the red of cherries and of apples..the green of tree and holly

Maybe simply we have lost touch so much with these realities, this rich mingling of life with death, that these things shock and disturb us? In times past, masters who painted the Nativity invariably put a crucifix into the scene; the picture I have used on the Christmas card on this site is one such.

The baby defeats death; thus the deep joy.. God does not deny death; he conquers it. The cost is blood, His blood.
The Divine Mercy picture of Christ , streams of red and white flowing from His heart. The white of abundant love and mercy, and its power over all. Purchased with blood. One only comes with and through the other. In that truth is strength and hope.

So; rejoice, and be at peace! Revel in the baby born; knowing that He will die as we die - but not the death that was before He came.

The colours of Christmas.. Green growing, red blossoming and fruiting. The pure, white light of the truth and love of God shining out through that baby, through that star.
And shining out to others through each one of us who accept and embrace Jesus, baby, man, Saviour, Spouse.
Shining clear and strong out into a dark world, spilling light as He spilled His blood.
Candles that are consumed as they shine out for others.

Here, as every year, in the tranquillity and solitude, the lights of Christmas will glow bright over the dark island, spreading prayer, spreading hope.
And the cards, bright red and green, words of peace and joy, are travelling over vast oceans.

That gift is a challenge. Accepting it will change your life, take you down paths you had not thought to take... Through the green leafy glades to the scarlet blossoms... Through life - and through death

And whatever we give in response to that love, in time, in energy, in skills in money, is so little against what we are given. We give not out of obligation or obedience, not constrained or forced, but in sheer exuberant joy and freedom!
That freedom that He gives us in His giving of His life in love for us. So we give our lives as He gave His, and the love spreads outwards, light radiating into darkness. Even as the candles burn away they glow warmth and light.

.The colours of Christmas....patterned green and red stitches on pure white; tiny crosses, tiny hopes, tiny shoots and fruits.

Be blessed and safe and joyful this Christmas tide!
"All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well" Mother Julian had that from an impeccable source!
Embrace the Christ-child in your hearts; love and be loved!