A look back at Christmas 2021 from the year 2100
It is the year 2100, the end of the 21st century!
At the turn of a century people tend to look back on the past 100 years and in 2100 it will be no different.
It has been quite an extraordinary century, so many things have happened!
There are only few people who have witnessed both the start and the end of this century. However, there are some 100+ elders, who have a right to speak.
One of them, Mr. Nice Story, even remembers the year 2021, which was a most memorable year.
It was the year of the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic. He relates about how difficult it was then to be together and celebrate because of for example social distancing and face masks, travel limitations and lockdowns and so on.
Christmas 2021, he continues, was perhaps precisely because of those restrictions, to him the best Christmas ever in the past century.
He says: “Because of the omnipresent and often severe infections you are very grateful for your own good health; during periods of restriction and strict measures you experience the importance of freedom, in quarantine you enjoy and appreciate good and personal relations even more.”
Mr. Nice Story continues his story and tells he spent Christmas 2021 in Ghana, in the PCC-Hand in Hand Community in Nkoranza to be precise.
A big smile appears on his face when he relates about the peace and quiet in PCC at that time and how happy the residents of the Community were that year because it was Christmas again, the festival of Light ànd of all those colourful and twinkling little lights.
Never ever the Christmas carols, songs of hope and longing, had pleased him so much and sounded so beautiful as during that Christmas; never ever the stars had sparkled so wonderfully as during Christmas Eve 2021 and the Biblical words: “Do not fear and rejoice in the Good News that we have come to bring you” by the Archangel Gabriel had touched him deep within his soul.
Mr. Nice Story also remembers that back in 2021 he had been deeply touched by the joy visible in nearly all residents.
He even recollects some of their names, like Blessing, James, Nana Yaw, Rebecca, Gabriel (“yes, there also was a Gabriel…!”), Yaw Balloon as an angel, Emmanuella (“God with us”, what a beautiful name!), Linda, Kojo Joseph and Eno Mary (“because those two had reminded him of Josef and Mary in the stable”).
Finally, the name of Kofi Asare comes up, because in his low and modest voice he had sung “Silent Night, Holy Night” so magnificently.
It was exactly this contact with all those children with special needs in PCC during Christmas 2021, which taught him some important and wise lessons, Mr. Nice Story continues, namely to enjoy those meetings with all beautiful people around him for the rest of his life (which is already 79 years in 2100..!!). Furthermore, to be grateful for everything which is still possible during times of all kinds of restrictions and not to be deterred by them and not to allow yourself to be disturbed by people who want to divert you from all that is good.
Mr. Nice Story still congratulates himself on the fact that he spent Christmas 2021 in PCC – Hand in hand. He wished so many more people would have been there together with him and would have experienced the same, but for those travel restrictions of that time….
Christmas 2021 will never be forgotten: the story of the Light that will disperse darkness, the announcement of God’s Peace on Earth, a Peace that will end all restrictions, a Peace that goes beyond all human understanding. Amen.