Dear Friends,

 

‘Tell me what you want,

what you really, really want….’

as the Spice Girls’ song went; a  suitable theme for this time of year? I keep overhearing conversations about the buying of presents – what alarmingly long and lavish lists some people seem to have; and I haven’t even started yet!

 

So children – and others – announce their wish-lists: ‘What I want for Christmas is….’

(or for those who’ve been brought up to be polite, ‘For Christmas, please may I have’.)

But for the greedy or polite, it’s often, for us in the West, adding to the clutter in our cupboards or on the shelves or in our wardrobes. The ‘must-have’ items for Christmas will soon have been forgotten by the Spring.

 

I really like the idea of the World Gifts catalogue, from which you could choose to give, for example,  emergency shelter for someone who’s been caught up in a natural disaster (£12), or chickens to keep a hungry family in eggs (£21), a cow to provide milk, pull a plough, and spread muck on poor soil (£72), or a latrine to provide sanitation and prevent disease (£15). ‘Give them a present they won’t forget’, announced the catalogue – that’s both the recipient of the gift itself, and the person in whose name you have purchased the gift. One young man was ‘given’ a latrine for Ethiopia last Christmas. He wrote: ‘I was a bit surprised when I was given the latrine at Christmas, as it’s not every day that someone buys you a toilet. But I thought it was a great idea that someone in Ethiopia was really going to benefit.’ If you want to know more about World Gifts, phone 0808 14 000 14 (free), or visit worldgifts.cafod.org.uk – and there are other similar organisations.

 

The truth is that we’ve become very confused about what we want and what we need.

This has been a horrendous year for many people in the world. Thousands this Christmas will be without homes because of natural disasters; many more thousands are living in conditions of dire poverty and will go hungry on Christmas Day. They do not have what they need, while we try to think of things we want.

 

We celebrate, at Christmas, the birth of a child who was born in poverty, and who spent the first years of his life as a refugee. He had none of the things we all want. Yet he came into a world full of darkness, conflict and violence, to bring those things we all so deeply need: the knowledge that we are loved, the peace which the world cannot give, the hope that good will ultimately conquer evil.

 

 Many in more affluent parts of the world have everything that they want, but not much of what they need. Many this Christmas will be unhappy, because of a broken relationship, or conflict in their family, or a loss of confidence in themselves in an aggressively competitive world. Others are sad because this has been a year of bereavement or failing health. These are all deep human needs, which no amount of superficial party spirit will cheer up. But that child whose coming we await with longing throughout this feverish month of December, does somehow, profoundly, bring with him the hope and peace and love we need; his birth brings light into a world of darkness.

 

What do you want, do you really, really want……?

 

With love,

Rosey