The True Gift of Christmas

Burr,burrr. . . . burr, burr . . .

It's 4am and I stagger sleepily toward the ringing phone. Who on earth could it be at this hour I wonder?

Hello? I inquire.

Xhoni? (John?)

est Belga! (It's Bella)
Mere Menges, (Good Morning) and


Gezuar Krishtlindje! (Merry Christmas)


It was our Albanian friend Bella ringing to wish us a Merry Christmas. I was wide awake now. It had been nearly four years since we had last seen her, but in those few waking seconds since I answered the phone the years between us had dissolved, The past had catapulted into the present and the miles that divided us erased.

It was as though we had never been separated.

Then it hit me, That's what Christmas is really about! It's about God eliminating the barriers.

Making all things just as they were when Man and God walked together in the garden. Catapulting the past into the present and erasing the miles that divided us.

That's the real gift of Christmas.

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Social Justice & Human rights

Perhaps the most significant thing to come out of the Annapolis conference last week is a story which, understandably, the western media have failed to focus on Olmert's after conference statement to Israeli media that did not even seek to disguise his deepest fears.

"If the day comes when the two-state solution collapses, and we face a South African-style struggle for equal voting rights (also for the Palestinians in the territories), then, as soon as that happens, the State of Israel is finished."

For almost 30 years now the (impossible) idea of a two state solution has failed, mainly because one state, Israel, would control all the resources, and now Israel is left exposing its true Apartheid like nature:

As in all international conflict the bottom line is always social justice and human rights.

Perhaps it's about time Israel showed it's neighbors the same sort of compassion God once showed them?

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No bad people, just bad choices

Once in a while you hear something. Probably a word or a phrase you've heard before but this time it comes like a shaft of light, a sonic boom, blowing away the cobwebs you hadn't even realised were cluttering your mind.

It was like that for me this morning when a friend was telling about a series of seminars he was involved in running for some men preparing for release from prison. 'What's that like', I asked, my mind flashing me images of scary villains with striped pajama type clothing, a black ball and chain, stubbly chins and facial scars.

"Oh, mainly nice people who've just made bad choices," he said with out a pause - then continued right on in to his story.

'The thing we are trying to get through to them' he said, 'is that even though they may have made bad choices in the past, they are only one decision away from putting all that behind them, if they want to.'

No bad people, only good people who have made bad choices. . . . . .

No bad people, only good people who have made bad choices!

It made me think how quick we are to label someone bad. To judge them, rather than their actions. To distance and disassociate ourselves from them because they're not like us.

But they are just like us. Good people. It's just that some of us have made better choices than others.

At least, for my sake, I hope that's the rationale God will adopt when he and I eventually meet up.

What do you think?

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