Welcome to Our World

Tonight is the night that we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. We welcome into the world a helpless child who came to be the saviour of the world. Tonight I was wondering what kind of world we have to offer and what welcome we would give if tonight another child was born?

Tonight there are soldiers far from their families, attempting to create peace for many. There are homes where there is not enough to eat and places where there is not enough love. There still isn't peace in the Middle East, greed motivates many actions in the world and compassion is lacking in many ways.

We are killing our world with global warming and taking for granted many things that we shouldn't. There are too many who are left out in the cold where there is more than enough to keep everyone warm and sheltered.

What world is it that we are supposed to welcome a child into? How are we equipped to allow a child who comes to save the world? What have we to offer to such a child?

We have a world where there is more hatred than love, more greed than compassion and more desperation than relaxation. We do not know how to welcome many people into our lives, let alone a helpless child.

We need a saviour more than anything right now. We need someone to come into our lives and remind us how to love. What we need is more than what we have. We get the reminder once a year that we are supposed to love and care for those around us. We are reminded that we are not the most important people in our lives, although we may feel as though we are.We need to remember that life should be different than the one we have created with all of our technology and rushing from one place to the next. The way it should be is not the way it is.

The world we have to welcome our saviour into is not one of peace and it is not one of love. It is, however, one of hope. We hope because we have to hope that we can create a better world than the one in which we live. That is what the birth of a tiny baby brought so many years ago and continues to bring for us today. Hope. That is all we have to offer. It is not enough, but it is a start.