Today's poem is the well-known and well-loved BC:AD by the English poet U A Fanthorpe.

The image is a library photo of a sculpture at St Martin in the Fields church in London, depicting the new born Christ, umbilical cord still attached... the raw humanity of incarnation.

A little self-indulgent, since I love both the poem and the image, but it is the last day!

So here's the last prayer of the series...

God of 'Before Christ', before the 'Common Era', before time itself

God of 'Anno Domini' - the 'Year of the Lord'- within the Common Era, here with us now...

As this Advent season draws to its close,

As, once more, w near the mystical moment that transforms history,

Let us, with magi and shepherds, prophets and priests,

With people we know and those we will never meet,

Walk on through the darkness - however haphazard our path -

And discover ourselves in the Kingdom of Heaven.

Amen

So maybe it is the season for ridiculous selfies?

Today's gift was a gold cardboard crown, intended to symbolise the status of Jesus as Prince of Peace (and possibly a hint at the Magi, traditionally portrayed as Kings)

OK, so it's not a great fit (probably designed for children rather than adults) but I expect it either made you smile or shake your head in disbelief.

Maybe that's not so far of the ludicrous truth that a peasant baby was actually God incarnate... that the Prince of Peace chose vulnerability and powerlessness as the way to live.  Perhaps we shrug in disblief, shake our heads or laugh in derision... but this is the heart of the Christmas story... a foolish God, whose folly is beyond the wisest of human wisdom.