One Tuesday afternoon In 1961 as a twenty-two-year-old, I was playing cricket on a carpet wicket made of jute. It was laid over stony ground, bulldozed flat at the base of an extinct volcano. On the western side was the second largest natural port in the world. To the east, towering peaks formed the western rim of a once mighty force, its eastern rim having been eroded by the Indian Ocean long ago.
Here I was in Southern Yemen at 3 pm on a field of stone. No-one dived to save runs, but I took three catches at mid-wicket and so ended my two years of National Service to the Queen. At eight pm I was on board an RAF Britannia (Whispering Giant) for its twelve-hour non-stop flight from Khormaksar to Stanstead and demobilisation.
Arriving at customs, the man wanted £1 duty on my Agfa Ambi Sillette camera purchased a year earlier on Maala Strait. I told him he could keep it. I was a National Service man and so had no money. He scowled and nodded me through. (Writing this reminds me that a few minutes earlier, I had loaned John Fitzpatrick a ten shilling note to settle his customs bill. He said he would repay when we got to Cardington and demob. He never did, and inflation now makes the debt £1193.15p.
Here I am, sixty-four years later not so much thinking of who owes me, but of what I owe others. In nightly prayers I scan for everyone I ever met and of how they helped me. I am simply grateful for everything. Yes everything! I do not think of what might have been, but of what is.
In this column previously, I told of the preacher whose prayer asked Jesus to make us feel guilty about our nation’s past. I wrote then that I feel no guilt of Britains past but an element of justifiable pride having concluded that, Kaizen (Change for the Better) was the result. In any case, Jesus was not about the past but the present. He knew that when we do good gratefully it is easy for others to see our intentions, whereas, when guilt is our motivator intentions can be easily questioned.
Guilt is a prod to change ourselves not others. Doing anything out of guilt raises the likelihood of our playing off a good deed against a bad one. Is my good greater than my bad, Or is my good, greater than the bad of others? When our minds turn to questions such as this we have been tempted to reinforce our own sense of rightness. When that happens, we have become our own Judges and susceptible to Self-Righteousness. No wonder the Bible tells us to leave “Judgement to the Lord. (Romans 2:1-6)
Christmas is a suitable time to give gifts to those we know, and aid, via Charities, to those we don’t. The Salvation Army is one. it is personal with them. No middlemen, no global conferences, no bureaucracy, the £25 is a companionable hot dinner in a warm room. So, Christmas is a perfect opportunity to give gifts out of feelings of gratitude.
At Christmas the Omniscient, Omnipotent, Omnipresent Creator of all that is, Seen and Unseen, was born as a baby to a willing Foster Father Joseph, and a prewarned yet willing Mother. Mary told Luke (chapters 1,2,) that she acknowledged to the Angel Gabriel that her baby was to be the Saviour promised by prophets. However, Luke says she was also warned of future pain by Simeon.
Finally, because of Mary and Joseph’s submission, God’s gift of eternal life is available to every reader. Good reason therefore to fill our minds and souls with good things. No guilt. Just Gratitude. And on Christmas morning to sing the final verse of Adeste Fidelis.
Yea, Lord, we greet thee, born this happy morning;
Jesus, to thee be glory given;
Word of the Father, now in flesh appearing;
O come, let us adore him, O come, let us adore him,
O come, let us adore him, Christ the Lord.
View from the Pew 