Day fifty four - Boxing Day

I took yesterday off! That is the sickest Christmas I have had. I wrote the Christmas Eve entry early in the day, but having slept very little the night before, I was exhausted all day. I also have a cold with sore throat and headache. I'm writing this at 5:40am so I'm not discussing Boxing Day till tomorrow.

In the evening of Christmas Eve I went to lie on the bed to see if I could sleep - I couldn't. After an hour I was back downstairs with the family. There were 4 of us for Christmas this year.

I slept better Christmas Eve night, but I was still up around 6 on Christmas morning. This used to be normal, to get up around 6, but I'm ill and my sleep at night is disturbed every few hours with the pain, so I'd really like to sleep in a bit later.

As it was, I lay on the settee and slept for half an hour before anyone else was up.

And I was thinking about our God contracted to a span, incomprehensibly made man (one of Charles Wesley's best lines in a Christmas song). Jesus didn't arrive full-grown and independent. He arrived as a burden on his parents. He couldn't feed himself; He couldn't use a toilet (1st century equivalent!) He couldn't dress himself. Writing to the Galatians, Paul tells us to bear one another's burdens. Yet our society has taught us that older people are a burden and older people feel like a burden and wish to die, so they would no longer inconvenience their relatives.

Imagine if we followed the incarnation pattern of God in Jesus and allowed other people to look after us.

Imagine if we looked after each other as a matter of course. As I was lying awake, first at 1am, then at 4am this morning, I realised that in the 6 weeks I have been off I can count on one hand the number of people who have kept in touch throughout. Some people I have not heard from, others contacted me over the first 2-3 weeks, but only a few have maintained contact. This is not a complaint! I refer you to my blog on "Projection" - you may think it's a complaint because you would complain in my position. This is just an observation. Everything has been done to cover all the services I was supposed to be taking, including Carol Services, Nativities and Christmas Day. This year was the first year that I was able to book myself the Sunday between Christmas and New Year off. And now I'm off anyway.

I have been surprised by those who have kept in touch. If I had been asked to make a list of who would keep contacting me to ask how I am before this happened, they would not have been on it.

I can't say I have been disappointed by those who haven't contacted me, but I wonder what I will be going back to if the NHS ever gets round to diagnosing me and fixing whatever it is that is wrong.