This morning was the annual Coffee Club carols - back on home turf after a couple of years out in community (where we weren't made all that welcome, it has to be said!).

Always fun - people call out their choices and I mangle the tunes on a piano that would mangle them anyway as several notes no longer work!

It is always just a tad bittersweet though - the first time we did it I was still going through chemo and wondering "will there be a next Christmas".  Now at the fifth Christmas since diagnosis, and nearing the four year check up point, I have proved to be one of the lucky ones.  But each year, as we gather and sing, I cannot help but remember.

Today, just an hour or so before we sang, came a text to let me know that one of my chemo-buddies died last night.  A new bittersweetness to this special moment in the year.  It wasn't unexpected, she'd been very ill for a while, but it is very sad, she was a good friend.

I've posted before the line from the old hymn, "I thank Thee, Lord, for life" which runs "and through it all, hopes star shall shine, and I shall have my song to sing."

For lots of families, Christmas is tinged with sadness, but the inextinguishable light of hope, the star in the darkness of loss, grief, pain, remorse, regret still shines brightly.

The photo is rather splendid panetone tree (or star stack!) that we enjoyed some of (along with warm mince pies) after our singing.  A wondrous thing.  Light and tasty and lightening the spirit.  A star of wonder, guiding us to the glorious light that is Christ Jesus.

Here in Glasgow, we are once again shocked, horrifed and saddened by tragedy.  George Square is a hive of activity at this time of year - shoppers, revellers, visitors, children ice-skating, a lovely nativity scene, shops, cafes... and today a scene of carnage as a bin lorry careered out of control and left several people injured or killed.

"People make Glasgow" so the slogan says, and they do.  Not that people don't make other places, or that people here are fundamentally different from people anywhere else, but this tragedy is about people - lives lost and broken, hopes and dreams shattered, Christmases ruined, families grieving and mourning...

Can't really better this prayer, so am sharing it from Glasgow (Episcopal) Cathedral

Yesterday I was sharing with an occasional worshipper at church that her daughter had designed our cut out animals and helped design the angels; she enjoyed our attempts at inclusivity, including one angel with a walking stick.

She observed that her church had a paraplegic angel - one who had, somewhere along the lines, lost her legs.  On their tree, in the interests of fairness, the angels take turns to be at the top of the tree and then, year by year, work their  way down to the bottom, before the cycle begins again! (And you all thought I was a bit OCD!)

I really like this idea... the refusal to discard the "broken" angel, the sharing of honour among the whole set (she didn't say how many they had), that the first becomes last and the last, first.  Somehow it speaks deep theological truths.

BPW 151 is a very short piece of responsive liturgy:

"I am the Alpha and the Omega," say the Lord God

"Who is and who was and who is to come, the sovereign Lord of all."

He who gives this testimony speaks: "Yes, I am coming soon!"

Amen.  Come, Lord Jesus.

Coming soon is a phrase beloved of the film and TV industries - this or that 'must see' film, series, serial, documentary, drama or whatever it is.  Perhaps, we as Christians have lost sight of the impact of this phrase, as, frankly God's idea of 'soon' is awfully long!

The idea of 'must see' or 'must not miss' is an important one to recapture... this is imply the best news ever, and, on an eternal scale, it's not so far off.

Not a long post today - lots to do (some fun day off stuff and some fun work stuff) but whatever you are doing, remember that 'soon' will become 'now' and, ready or not, the Lord's day will arrive!

No photos this time, but it was a lovely evening.  Lovely mixture of music and readings.  Stealing the show as ever the children's choir from an East Glasgow primary school who treated us to some wonderful, energetic and joyful singing.  Quite a lot of sight-singing for me, but some really good singers made for a worthy adults choir tackling a range of music from Stainer to Spirituals and several point in between.

It's been a long day, and a good one.

Now it's a busy week of fun and festive services.... coffee and carols, familes watchnight, Christmas celebration & lunch... looking forward to it