Well, I finally got around to sending our Christmas cards out yesterday. It was interesting on the weekend to read in the Sydney Morning Herald that Australia is the fourth largest greeting card market in the world. We come behind the US, UK and Netherlands. Of course all of those are not Christmas cards. But the article said on average Australians send out 21 Christmas cards a year. We must be sending out someone else’s share as well as we sent out more than that.Not surprisingly between 85-95 percent of the cards are bought by women.
We usually buy them in packs from the local Christian bookshop. Our cards always depict the nativity scene or something that relates to the birth of Jesus. They always contain a bible verse that reflects our faith. I will sit for ages trying to match the right card with each person on our list.
With the advent of email we email some newsletters and Christmas greetings but mostly we send cards. I also like to receive cards and was happy yesterday to find three in the letterbox.
On the whole we don’t send cards to people we see all the time at church or socially but friends whose friendship is important to us but we might only see a couple of times a year. Some are people we no longer see, since we moved but we don’t want to lose touch.
Most cards go out with a letter that updates friends to what Mick and I and the family have been up too since they last heard from us. We pray some of our words will spark our non Christian friends into investigating Christianity. Sometimes that may take years, as happened to a friend recently and then suddenly something clicks and the person decides to go to church or read a bible or buy a Christian book or attend a carols service. We never know how God will work if we pray and pass on the message.
This year Mick and I also sent letters home to the parents of the children we teach at school and told them what had been teaching the children this term. With them, we included a list of all the church services and carols. We pray some of them will be inspired to visit them. Do you use Christmas time as an opportunity to share your faith? If not, why not?
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