OVER the past year, Ive been wondering at what point the newspapers would discover that the twentieth century and the second millennium really end on 31st December this year and that last years celebrations were all in fact twelve months too soon. Its bound to happen some time.
Anyway, the third Christian millennium and twenty-first century do finally begin on Monday 1st January 2001 and so we can legitimately ask what we expect the new year will bring. The best guess is more of the same and if this seems rather depressing, well, we need to ask what we ourselves can do to make the new millennium better than the last one. But whats so special about a particular date in any case? If any date really deserves to be of note to Christians, it should rather be the anniversary of Gods raising Christ from death because this is what really makes the difference for us. Christians have celebrated Easter right from the beginning. They only discovered Christmas a few centuries later. And yet Christmas is important because it is at Christmas that God begins his work in Christ. In entering into the world as the baby in the manger, he proves his concern for mankind. God identifies with us at a most basic level. It is because Jesus is one of us that through his death and his being raised to new life he can help us and bring us too into the life of heaven. So please join with me in celebrating the birth of Jesus this Christmas. Let it be a significant milestone on our journey into faith. And when the third millennium finally begins on 1st January, may we rededicate our lives to building Gods kingdom on earth and preparing for the life of heaven. John-David Yule