The usual story - a hopeless tangle of last years Christmas tree lights...crushed bulbs, lost coloured-covers that make it look scrappy, and the unending search for undoing the mess without screaming.
The 'Naked Scientist' BBC program which aired on ABC's Radio National set three scientists the task to untangle some fairy-lights each, with ensuing discussion on the need for "a system" to eliminate this problem - an "entropy reversal" system that could AVOID the annual mess, restore order, and reduce stress. [See their website https://www.thenakedscientists.com/articles/interviews/entropy-christmas-lights]
They suggest something as simple as an empty cereal box, for careful winding around once the lights are not required. This then can be placed in a crate or on a shelf so that the infernal tangle is no more! The scientists and the presenters continued on their discussion, concluding "if only, there was such a system!" for the problem of this just going awry when left to itself.
This got me thinking - what about the problem of human entropy, and the tangled mess we find ourselves, our societies, and our planet, knotted up in?
What if the ancient scroll is true and that humanity "is born to trouble, as the sparks fly upwards"? Found in the Book of Job, chapter 5, verse 7, paraphrased by me.
What if the Promised Saviour who was to "save his people from their sins", (Gospel of Matthew, chapter 1, verse 21) - from their tangles, their mess, and the pain of self-induced or other-caused actions was the REVERSAL of the universal entropy of which we are all suffering?
The Letter of Saint Paul to the Romans (chapter 8, verse 22) says that "we know that the whole creation has been groaning" under all this sin - entropy - and is waiting for salvation!
Well, SALVATION has come! Jesus was born, and we celebrate this at Christmas.
The possibility of the NEW CREATION has arrived by God's grace, and by his plan as told in the scriptures - the promises to Eve, to Abraham, and in the texts of Isaiah and other prophets.
Old Simeon and old Anna rejoiced, as they SAW what had been promised come true (Luke chapter 2, verses 25 to 38), and they gave God the credit due the One who had said that the "offspring of the woman would crush the serpent" (Genesis chapter 3, verse 15).
So, is entropy inevitable? Is there something in the Maker's manual that can assist us to not only resolve 'tangles' but reduce and avoid them?
May you seek the meaning of Christmas, as you search to untangle big and small things in your life these holidays.
