With visitors from Somerset, London and Orkney, we had a lovely intimate morning service for about 30 folk.  Sat around tables with cups of tea/coffee and nibbles, we sang familiar carols, heard familiar readings, reflected on the wonder of it all and shared in a creative act of intercessory prayer - writing or drawing our petitions on strips of cloth which were used to line the manger (over the hay) ready for the baby.

Then, when we had cleared up, several us headed over the road to help deliver Christmas lunch to to around fifty folk, some homeless, some with mental health issues, some lonely or isolated, some with addictions, some who simply wanted to share in this community event.  Lots more carols, people dining on vast amounts of festive food, it was fabulous fun.

And now, after a very full and fulfilling day, I think it's time to get the jammies on and chillax!!

This is advance posted on the basis that Christmas Day will be way too busy!

After a busy Advent at the end of a pretty busy year, it is good to pause, if only for a few moments and remember what it is that motivates us.  The Christmas story, in its Biblical minimalism, or with all its embellishments, draws us to the miracle of new life, the potential that lies untapped and undamaged in each newborn child.  It is a story of hope and a story of love.  It is simultaneously an outrageous story and a tender tale.

In the jaded, world-weariness that threatens to overwhelm us, it is good, if only in our imagination, to glimpse the miracle reborn in each child, and, for those of us have the audacity to believe in an incarnate God to wonder afresh what a ridiculously stupid, wonderful, powerful, vulnerable, redemptive, transformative act that was, and is, and always will be.

Wishing all my readers a very Happy Christmas, and a New Year characterised by peace, hope and love.