"The only thing"...

 "And an angel of God appeared, whilst God's radiance shone all around the place, and they were all filled with a deep fear".  Luke 2:9.

Science Fiction, as with any useful genre, can give us some telling insights into the reasons for foolish human behaviour.

In the Star Trek Voyager episode entitled The Thaw, we learn of a group of people who have been connected to a program that is meant to rescue them from a global disaster. Sadly, the program fails them and its purpose long after the danger has passed, and those tied to it's failure have now become victims to an endless cycle of control, personified in a character defined as fear.

The story concludes by this avatar being outwitted by a cool, detached application of reason and cunning, leaving it with nothing to feed upon, and thereby allowing a total exhaustion of its ability to prey upon the vulnerability of others.

Fear, as this story actually notes, when applied well, can be a good thing, giving us a healthy wariness of what is unknown or uncertain, but it can also become a tyrant, ruining all that is good.

The shepherd's in the gospel narrative were rightly unsettled by the arrival of the divine presence and God's messenger, who proceeds to seek to calm them so they could receive the tidings he brought, but what use would the message had been if that calming had not occurred? Fear most certainly would have ruined the opportunity of them genuinely sharing the marvel of the message that was being delivered to them. Fear, then, is only good when it leads us to something which is far greater than the fear itself. 

In the past few days, it is estimated that there has been around a 90% cancellation rate in all bookings of Christmas hospitality venues in the festive period, with some four a half million racing since Monday to book a booster, no doubt fuelled in part by the health secretary estimating in Parliament infection rates with the new variant are some 16 times higher than the official data would suggest. The 'seer's' of such means are truly back, stating that we could see 'up to a million' cases a day very shortly, hence, we rush towards 'stricter' "necessary" measures.

Naked fear.

It kills. It relentlessly drives. It banishes all reasonable considerations, and thereby, it leaves us locked into a cycle of increasing trial and loss, too afraid any longer to live beyond such fences.

We are most certainly caught in just such a spiral, but if anything should have been learned in the past months, it is that we lack the natural resources to break this power. We have become a people constantly pushed under by the force of what is upon us, and any suggestion that we should even try to question is deemed evil - we must all submit to a particular single order, or be shunned and banished.

When even natural affection and care becomes subservient to these ends, we must question what has become of ourselves.

Christmas affirms the God who will not be silenced by such misery.

By means of all that is deemed weak and pathetic, the Lord breaks the tyranny and shatters the conventions of the day by showing a sway over sin and death that is unmatched by anyone or anything else, but until that 'reign' becomes known to each of us, fear and wickedness will always leave us chained to the madness that 'we' can achieve what must be in our own devising (Genesis 11).

The 'war' against the current malady is merely an expression of our continual intent to make a particular construct 'king', and fear has become the optimum weapon to wield to do this, but it will all end terribly after the deaths of many.

The question we must ask ourselves is does our trust in God and His Son allow us to work through this trial with certain faith, or just the terror of fear?