The last card to come by post this year, and it'd be hard to find one more pertinent, I think. It was sent by friends who live in Whaley Bridge, a town that came within a hair's breadth of being swept away as a dam started to crumble under the pressure of water above it.  A scary, close to home, reminder of the fragility of our planet, and the impact of climate change.

I have online friends in Australia who live in fear that this will be the day that they have to abandon their homes.

I also have online friends thoughout ther UK who fear they will lose their homes because of austerity or government policy, a different kind of climate change.

Part of the message of Christmas is that God enters this mess to transform it from within. Not be magic (oops, miracle) because that would absolve humanity of all responsibility.  No, God enters it as a human, to be part of it and to show us how we can love God's creation as God does.  We can't just cling blithely or blindly to the Revelation 21/22 promises.  We can't just pray harder.  We have to incarnate, to live out, day by day, a best we possibly can, our anticipation of that hope.

That's not easy, in fact it's extremely difficult.  But it's what Christmas is about...

God loved the world so much that God entered the world so that all creation - all creation, including the Trump administration, including Westminster (and Holyrood and Brussels), including ISIS/ISIL, including whoever I may see as 'battered' or 'beleagured', 'broken' or 'bad', or 'them', all of it - might be saved.

And if that doesn't give me pause for thought, then, Houston, I have a problem!

I can't fix it all, but I can be light in my small corner...