Yesterday was the first Sunday in Advent which means the beginning of the Season of Christmas. For many of us this is the time for revelry, fun and parties!
Getting drunk, and getting high!
And for those of us with such a picture, allow me to present mine: I picture a tippler leaving a bar, swaying from side to side, it is the Christmas season and he feels it is reason enough to go home drunk. He sways to the door, and a taxi driver greets him, “Taxi sir?”
“Yes, I am filled with spirits, hic, hic, I cannot walk, hic, lead me to your taxi!”
“Come sir, come into my taxi and let me tell you of the Spirit of Christmas!”
“I already know about spirits,” says the drunk as he sprawls on the seat, “I have taken a lot of it from the bottle today!”
“Ah sir,” says the taxi driver, a twinkle in his eye, “It was to get rid of having to rely on that spirit of the bottle that the first Christmas happened more than two thousand years ago!”
“I…I don’t need the bottle?”
“No, sir, the baby born in a manger, the little boy child called Jesus came to fill you with something different. Tell me, why are you drunk sir?”
“Why am I drunk, hic?” asks his passenger, “Why am I drunk? I am drunk because I want to feel happy! I am drunk because my life has reached a point of no return, I feel frustrated and impotent!”
“Sir, you are crying!”
“I cry, because I am lonely. Nobody wants to listen to me!”
And in my picture, the taxi suddenly rises in the air. “Where are you going?” screams the passenger.
“Back in time to Bethlehem sir, I will drive you to a manger! There sir what do you see?”
“A little baby wrapped in hay!”
“How do you feel sir?”
“What feeling is this? I have never felt this sense of security! I feel as if the child in the manger is reaching out to hold my hand!”
“Yes sir, as that child grows, He will reach out and hold the hand of every lonely individual in the world. He will say to the people, ‘Come unto me all you who labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest!”
“Oh, what a feeling of peace!”
“Come sir let us return to my taxi!” says the taxi driver.
“Yes,” says the passenger. “Though I don’t feel like leaving that baby in the manger, yet I know as I walk away that His spirit is in me!”
“That sir, “says the taxi driver as he drives his cab into the sky and back to the city, “is the Spirit of Christmas! A spirit that will fill your heart and soul and mind, and give you the strength of an eagle as you go about your daily life. And a joy that will be beyond your understanding!”
That night as the passenger walks away from the cab into his home, his wife looks at him, and says, “Drunk again?”
“Yes!” he smiles, “With the Spirit of Christmas I found in a manger where a Baby was lying..!”
Robert Clements is a newspaper columnist and author. He blogs at www.bobsbanter.com and can be reached at bobsbanter@gmail.com
