This angel keeps watch from high above the city of Glasgow - being one of the huge memorials in Glasgow necropolis.

As Advent nears its end, we come almost full circle, with angels keeping sentinel over cities.

After a fairly frenetic week - and a busy morning cleaning my flat ready for guests to drop in this afternoon - I'm just about sorted for the weekend.  And it's good to pause, even fleetingly to listen out for the quiet voice of angels, speaking Good News of hope, joy, peace and love into this city, and countless others.

Thank you, God of all places, for angels carved in stone, symbolising your safekeeping of all held in their gaze.

Gingerbread angels!  It's a few years now since we did a 'Gingerbread Nativity' on Christmas Eve at church.  Indeed, until I was looking for something else on my external hard drive (which turned out to be on my new laptop afterall) I had forgotten all about these pictures.

It's surprising how rapidly the years pass.  Equally surprising, and for me intriguing, what we do and don't remember.  No doubt some people remember very cleary, and fondly the Gingerbread Nativity (I recall it as somewhat chaotic with rather excited children, and frazzled adults, even if I had a lot of fun).

What matters is not that we recall the details, not even that we remember the event, but that it happened, and we experienced it, and, in some small way, it impacted us.

I'm sure the angels (vanilla, gingerbread and chocolate) tasted good.  And I'm sure the day was fun for the small people who took part in it.

Finding the photo reminds me of the value of 'present moment' as well as the limits of memory.  I hope that this year, too, our children and YP have had fun with the activities we've shared, from peg doll angels, to gingerbread men and more. If all they remember in years to come is that it was a time of fun and love, and stories of good news for all, then we'll have done ok.

This image was shared with me by a former work colleague and sometime chorister at St Mary's, Glasgow

The annunciation is a rather wonderful image, using a very limited colour palate to great effect.  I love how Mary is sitting on a chair (I thought for a while it was a park bench!) and her handbag dangles at the end. I love the coffee pot on the table and the (highly symbolic of her purity) vase of lilies in the foreground. The overflying dove, the branch held by the angel - all rich symbols in a surprisingly contemporary depiction.

What I love about this image is that very fusion of ancient and modern, symbolism and mischief, all of which express something of the mystery of this ancient story.

God of the past,

God of the present,

God of the future

Older and younger than we will ever be

Thank you for the creativity of artists

Who can express something of that mystery

In images such as this.

Photo (c) Stewart Macfarlane 2015

As a bit of fun, I decided to decorate the cat's 'tree'.  Rooting through their toy box, and realising how many toy mice they have, I decided to create a nativity scene with them.  The angel is actually a small toy cat, rescued from the church clear out last year, and yes, there's a chicken (rather than a camel or a donkey!) and a tiny dog (instead of a lamb).

Both cats were very curious about it - with Sophie even snuggling up in the 'stable' for a while.

This little ornament hangs on my tree.  It is an "Angel for the Broken" made by a charity in Mongolia who craft them from the glass of bottles that contained alcoholic drinks, and sell them to raise funds for alcohol rehabilitation.

These angels are incredibly fragile, and the wings of this one had snapped off, leaving her looking more like Mary.

In a perverse way, I like that. Not all angels have wings. And Mary was a messenger in her own right.

I didn't quite manage to position the angel/Mary so the lights would shine through her glass body, but I think she also has that 'saint' quality too.

One fundamental truth of Christianity is that, in some way or other, we are all broken.  Yet the light of Christ still shines on, and through, us, enabling us to be, and speak, Good News to others.

Broken angels, bearing hope to those who are broken - what could be more hopeful than that?