This afternoon is the Gingerbead Nativity - an afternoon of love and laughter culminating in a creative telling of the Christmas story.

I debated advance posting for tomorrow, when I'll be out all day but opted not to this year.  Instead, this is a kind of a bloggy Christmas card!

May the joy of the angels,

the eagerness of the shepherds,

the perseverance of the wise men,

the obedience of Joseph and Mary,

and the peace of the Christ child

be yours this Christmas

(borrowed from the C of E)

I have a small but loyal readership in the southern hemisphere, where it is already Christmas Day - so wishing them the blessing of a happy day, filled with love and laughter, and that the year ahead is healthy and hope-filled.

Special greetings to Baptists in Ponsonby, Auckland, New Zealand.

That joyous moment when all the serivce prep is prepped - including Sunday 28th (albeit not printed off yet) which means I get two whole days off after tomorrow.

This maybe as well, as I a delightful Christmas cold all set to peak tomorrow :-)

Today's BPW offering is, perhaps surprisingly, "a prayer for Bible study".  It amused me that it contains a line my Dad often cited, and which is the title for my first preaching series in 2015 (a poor pun in that case, as it's a series from the gospel of Mark): Read, mark, learn and inwardly digest

Blessed Lord,
who caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning:
help us so to hear them,
to read, mark, learn and inwardly digest them
that, through patience, and the comfort of your holy word,
we may embrace and for ever hold fast
the hope of everlasting life,
which you have given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Apparently it is the collect for the "last Sunday after Trinity" which seems to be the last Sunday in October, though in some schemes it also pops up at Advent 2 which used to be Bible Sunday (confused? you will be!)

Read, mark, learn and inwardly digest seems quite a holistic approach to the Bible - not mere rote learning nor yet mere critical reading, rather the mulling over and 'chewing' on the complexities of these ancient writings to nourish our souls and minds for everyday living.

As tomorrow we celebrate the "word made flesh" our prayer must surely be that we do indeed continue to read, mark and learn.

So, I have just pulled together a reflection, of sorts, for Christmas Day - a bit later than usual, and actually not really going anywhere near the direction I'd intended, but it seems right, I think.

Usually I'd have had it written at least in draft by the end of last week.

But it didn't happen.

And after yesterday's events in Glasogw, maybe that's a good thing, as I may have ended up rewriting it.

I hope and pray that I have the balance right... a decade since I my Boxing Day sermon said something like "already life is moving on from the celebrations, and the breaking news informs us of a seismic event in eas asia..." I find a not disimilar situation this year.  Among the (countless) things they don't teach you at vicar school, and to be fair maybe can't, is how to respond to global or local tragedies.

In all this, and more, the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has never extinguished it.  And that is God's grace.  And that, along with my own tardiness makes me go "hmmm"