Not another variant!?! Our hearts sink as another variant raises its ugly head in the battle to crush Covid 19 and banish it to the history books. And from where do all these variant names come?
The Greek alphabet: Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon, Zeta, Eta, Theta, Iota, Kappa, Lambda, Mu, Nu, Xi, Omicron, Pi, Rho, Sigma, Tau, Upsilon, Phi, Chi, Psi, Omega. Notice that they’ve missed a few letters. Ever get the impression we’re making it all up as we go along? Don’t get me wrong, please get triple vaccinated and help in the war effort to protect each other from contracting and spreading disease! But don’t let ‘fear’ drive you. Let God’s Word drown out the ‘din of doom’. Allow God’s Loving promise and presence to displace anxiety and dominate your horizon.
The Bible describes God as The Alpha & Omega, Beginning and End, the A – Z. God has all the letters of the alphabet and more. God has Omicron and all letters and variants surrounded.
Philippians 4:6-7 (MSG) “Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the centre of your life.”
Imagine your anxiety, fear and worry is like the water in a swimming pool that you may be sinking in. An elephant decides to jump into your pool and displaces all the water. A comical and crude illustration, but that’s the impact when we let Jesus explode our fears and worries and replace them with thanksgiving and praise to God. Christ displaces the worry water we’re drowning in and leads us to a dry land of peace, purpose, and hope, able to notice and care for the needs of others as well as our own.
What’s Christmas all about? Angels message Mary, Joe & the shepherds! A ‘virgin birth’! Crazy King Herod murders under twos! Eastern stargazers follow a royal star to Israel! Gifts of ‘rusks, nappies, wipes, baby grows and cuddly toys?’ – NO – gold, frankincense & myrrh!
Can you cope with mystery and mess? What might Sherlock, Hercule or Miss Marple make of that first Christmas? Why would God become human, shrink from omnipotence to incontinence, from Creator holding all to being held in human hands? Why would God’s son Jesus grow into such a selfless, compassionate, teacher, then submit to the most excruciating of deaths?
‘Why!?’ Because you are precious to God. He loves you unconditionally the way you are, and too much to leave you the way you are! Infinity to Infancy, God moves into our world to be with you and lead you through life and death into ‘forever with God’. “Cast all your cares on God for he cares for you.” (1 Peter 5:7)
Please don’t let fear con you into a ‘Covid-mas’ corner. May the true Christ displace your fear and worry to be found in your heart, home, life and living. May the marvellous mystery of Christmas draw you into intimacy with ‘The One Who Loves You’ more than you can tell or imagine. Let the Christ of Christmas displace all worry and fear. Happy CHRISTmas!
