So, I have just pulled together a reflection, of sorts, for Christmas Day - a bit later than usual, and actually not really going anywhere near the direction I'd intended, but it seems right, I think.

Usually I'd have had it written at least in draft by the end of last week.

But it didn't happen.

And after yesterday's events in Glasogw, maybe that's a good thing, as I may have ended up rewriting it.

I hope and pray that I have the balance right... a decade since I my Boxing Day sermon said something like "already life is moving on from the celebrations, and the breaking news informs us of a seismic event in eas asia..." I find a not disimilar situation this year.  Among the (countless) things they don't teach you at vicar school, and to be fair maybe can't, is how to respond to global or local tragedies.

In all this, and more, the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has never extinguished it.  And that is God's grace.  And that, along with my own tardiness makes me go "hmmm"