Adelaide and I have been enjoying reading Pete Majendie’s memoirs together. One of the chapters is called ‘Front Doors and Front Rooms.’ Pete’s Dad tells him that “if God ever wants to talk to you, He comes in the back door.” Pete then asks the question, “like friends and neighbours?”
He says, “I’ve never been in or out of any of my friends’ front doors. All the indoor/outdoor flow is through the back door. Brighton’s a back-door sort of place, I like it.”
This brings to mind a snippet from an email from a friend who is living in the Philippines.
She shared a photo of an elaborate and glittering nativity scene, saying “Christmas decorations here are sometimes quite confused. There was nothing fancy around when Jesus was born!” I wonder whether we can also become confused amongst pressure to be consumers at Christmas and forget the simplicity and meaning of the Christmas story.
I love how the Message translation of the Bible puts it in John 11:14 “The Word became flesh and blood and moved into the neighbourhood.” The Son of the Most High God, the second person of the Trinity, humbly and quietly came in the back door at Christmas