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The healing touch of Christmas
By Anne Abayasekara
For the first time in my life, I have flinched at the thought of Christmas. The contrast in our home between last Christmas and this, seems almost too painful to contemplate. Contrary to the practice of the last so many years, I have not contributed a happy Christmas article so far to any newspaper.
Today is the 21st of December and in my mind's eye I can see the joyful gathering of the clan at this time last year, children and spouses and grandchildren coming to celebrate their father's/grandfather's 90th birthday which fell on December 19, 2004. We had a special thanksgiving service at home in which we all participated, together with relatives and friends who had always assembled here over the years to share this glad day with us.

Ranmali, our eldest, in welcoming the crowd, said: "December 19th has always been a magical day in our lives and the passing years have not dimmed the feelings of excitement, joy and gratitude that it evokes in us. “It has been a day when, with all our family and friends, we celebrate Thatha's birthday, with Amma's ideas being the building blocks around which the day was planned.

"Sadly, the world today is a different place from the one we grew up in and Man's inhumanity to man is what strikes us as we look round the globe. ... However, we have also learnt that among the things that endure, and that mean the most to us, are the relationships we have with family and friends. .....

”Our lives are a fabric woven with many threads and there are some shining moments in our lives that will always remain golden. Today is such a day."
As my thoughts go back to that shining day, some words from the beginning and the end of the moving prayer of thanksgiving which my husband offered, leap up from the printed record one son lovingly compiled for us: "O God, the source of the Good, the Right and the True, of Love in all its fullness, and of bounty and power infinite, and who, as our Heavenly Father, granted these as blessings to us, we come to Thee today to offer from the depths of ourselves, our minds and hearts, as a family and individually, thanks and gratitude for the blessings we have received down the years - blessings beyond measure and number."

His concluding words were: "Even as we offer these our thanks to Thee in words, we know they are incomplete unless they are matched by deed. So, for and in our efforts to do so, we ask for Thy inspiration, guidance and strength to be of service to others in all the ways we can, so that we may be effective channels of Thy love and instruments of Thy peace."

The children and `grands' put on a `Dramatic Presentation of the Life of Earle Ebenezer Coke Abayasekara' to the huge delight of the assembled guests. An Australian grandson, Ambrith, and grand-daughter Shenali made very professional TV presenters representing a mythical Global Television Network, with Dilip as the local reporter from Sri Lanka. Selected episodes were enacted, with various family members playing the roles of our hero and significant people in his life, ranging from his parents, himself as a schoolboy and Boy Scout, to Mr. D.R. Wijewardene interviewing Earle for a position in Lake House, Anne starting work under him and being admonished for taking an unscheduled tea interval at 10 a.m., their romance three years later, etc., etc., concluding with news of the 90th birthday celebration.

In the week leading up to Christmas, the house was filled with carols and talk and laughter. The children insisted on putting up a tree which they decorated with old baubles and new, plus beautiful twinkling coloured lights. It was a good feeling to fill three pews in the church they had attended from childhood and where most of them were married. Having a newly-married grand-daughter and her Australian husband with us gave added joy. Although we hadn't any inkling that it would be Earle's last Christmas with us, all of us delighted in that unforgettable time of family fellowship and thankfulness to God. We could truly say that "Christmas is the delight of loving and being loved in return, not for gifts tied with ribbons, but for gifts of the heart offered with an open heart every day of the year."

So, with those jewelled memories in my mind, I have wondered how it would be this year, without the presence of the most important person in my life. Could I bear it?

The children too have been somewhat apprehensive, sending me flowers on the 19th,and constant loving messages on cards and e-mail. I have played the ever-loved carols on Earle's CD player and found my heart responding, as it has always done, to the glad tidings of Christ's birth and what it has meant to all people everywhere on earth.

One of his favourites and mine, is "O Little Town of Bethlehem". The verse,
"How silently, how silently, the wondrous gift is given -
So God imparts to human hearts the blessings of His heaven......"
fills me anew with the wonder of it all. Because God came down at Christmas to share our earthly life and show us how we should conduct ourselves as His children, and because He conquered death when He died on the cross and rose again, giving us the imperishable hope of life eternal, we cannot sit and mourn `for loved ones lost who blest last Christmastide'. I know that I shall be able to lift my voice in song to greet the Christchild on the happy morning when we commemmorate His birth. I shall thank Him for "the glorious gift of His love, and the blessings that hallow our days."

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