Dear Friends

It’s December, Christmas is now, undeniably, near. No doubt some will be sitting back, having been organised enough to have cards written, presents wrapped and Christmas food organised. Others will be feeling an increasing sense of panic as the ‘big day’ gets ever nearer, yet the ‘to do list’ hardly seems to get shorter. The busyness in the lead up to Christmas reflects the busyness and turmoil in the lives of a young couple in Nazareth just over two thousand years ago.

The lives of Mary and Joseph had been completely turned on their heads over the preceding year. First came their engagement, along with all the plans and hopes for their future together. Then Mary was visited by an angel, and bravely submitted herself to God.

Joseph’s confusion and anger at what appeared to be Mary’s betrayal of their engagement was then soothed after he, too, was visited by an angel. Then came the Roman announcement of a census, requiring them to make the long, hard and dangerous journey of 90 miles, from Nazareth to Bethlehem, with Joseph on foot and Mary, now heavily pregnant, most likely on a donkey. To cap it all, there was nowhere for them to stay at journey’s end, save a generously donated stable, as Mary entered labour.

What a place for the Creator of the universe to take on the helpless form of a human baby!

His parents far from home, His surroundings far from glamorous, and His life soon to be in danger from a king prepared to order mass infanticide in response to a potential threat to his position. But it was a start in life that was entirely fitting for the One who had come to side with the poor, the marginalised and the powerless, and call out the absence of moral behaviour among the rich, the well-connected and the powerful.

Christmas is joyful because it commemorates the coming of God Himself into the world in the form of a baby. I don’t know about you, but I find it almost impossible to look at a baby without smiling and feeling my heart soar. I don’t know what the future will hold for her or him, I only know that, it’s a baby and simply instils love in me. How much more does God look at us, His babies, and love! That’s why He came, in love, to break through the hold sin has on us, and to lead us home.

In amongst the joy of Christmas, with the sparkling decorations, sumptuous food and generosity of family and friends, it’s easy to forget the harsh reality of what we are commemorating: a miraculous birth, an exhausted couple, squalid conditions and, soon after, the need for them to become refugees, fleeing to Egypt to protect the Holy Infant from the tyrant king. Knowing this, perhaps we should add one more thing to our ‘Christmas to do list’, something that will ease the lives of someone who is poor, marginalised or powerless – it need have little, or no, monetary value, but it would be continuing Jesus’ work where it is most needed, as He said,

‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.’ (Matthew 25:40)

Many blessings and merry Christmas,

Carl