NOT A NORMAL CHRISTMAS
 
This will be a different Christmas from other years.  The government as cancelled Christmas socials, and we will be separated from friends and family.  Janet and I recently felt the pain of having to cancel a long anticipated visit from our son, daughter-in-law, and two grandsons.  Many others have had to make similar hard choices. 
 
How do we respond to the strangeness of this COVID Christmas?  I have three modest suggestions:

• Grieve your losses.  While there is an important place for telling ourselves that “other people have it worse” and that “there will always be next year;” I don’t think that is the place to start.  The Biblical pattern for processing our emotions is to talk to God honestly about them.  It is okay and necessary to feel our feelings, and God cares about them; so, tell him what is going on inside.  Once we are secure in God’s love for us, we will actually be in a better place to accept those other bits of advice we give ourselves.
• Meditate:  The pandemic can help us gain a deeper appreciation for the true meaning of Christmas.  After all, the nativity was not a social function in which “fun was had by all”.  Joseph and Mary were alone in a strange place.  At a time a when a pregnant young woman would normally yearn for the loving support of her family, Mary was relegated to a stable to give birth to her firstborn.  Christmas was even different for God—after all, his Son wasn’t home for Christmas! The austerity of our COVID Christmas can actually help us to enter more deeply into what Christmas is actually about.
• Love:  Many people are feeling the same sense of loneliness and loss that you may be feeling right now.  How might your reach out to them?  The true spirit of Christmas is love—after the pattern of God’s self-giving love in sending Jesus.  So consider: whose Christmas season can you brighten through your love and encouragement this year?  

Have a blessed Christmas.  I hope this year you will experience blessings as unexpected as the times we are living through. –Pastor Tom 
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The Opportunities of COVID-19
 
The Pastor’s Corner is back.  I can hardly believe that the last time I wrote one was on March 20 of this year—nearly eight months ago!  We began using a weekly video to communicate our weekly Bethel updates, and that made me think the Pastor’s Corner was unnecessary.
But I’ve learned something in these eight months.  While video is great for the urgent, “need-to-know” items, it doesn’t serve as well for the “what’s-happening-in-the-church-family,” “good-to-know” items.  Lately I’ve encountered a lot of these good-to-know bits of news but had no way to share them. 
So, the Pastor’s Corner is back—at least occasionally.  (I’ll do this one and then I’ll take it a week at a time.)
What has been on my mind lately are the unique opportunities COVID-19 is creating. I don’t have to enumerate for you the many downsides of COVID-19.  We know those all too well, but allow me to share just a couple of positive things that happened in my life because of the pandemic.

• Two different Bethel families drop off seasonal gifts to encourage Janet and me.   (We actually had St. Nick and his faithful sidekick at our door in full regalia!)  I’m sure these loving gestures were motivated, at least in part, by the special circumstances of COVID-19.
• Partly because of these thoughtful Bethelites, Janet and I have decided to give all of our neighbours individually wrapped servings of a fancy hot chocolate mix along with a word of Christmas encouragement.  It is our growing relationship with our neighbours that has made life in our neighbourhood increasingly rich, and opened the door for occasional spiritual conversations. We hope this will help deepen those relationships.

How can you spread the love and Good News of Jesus this year? What opportunities for love and witness is this pandemic opening up for you? –Pastor Tom