... for the specific benefit of those who check in daily to check up on me...

It is a gorgeous day here in Glasgow - blue skies and melting snow to be seen from my window.  Meanwhile I decided to give the vacuum cleaner a treat and get it out this morning along with giving my living room a long overdue tidy.

Last night I broke with tradition and put up my Christmas tree.  Usually I don't put it up until after my birthday but last year it never got up at all because it was in storage.  So, two year's worth of Christmas tree this time, plus a bit to offset the time at the end of 2003 when it didn't get put because I was moving from Manchester to Leicestershire.  Over the coming days/weeks the rest of my decorations will get put up as the seaosn progresses.

Tomorrow, Advent 2 and we will be listening to some prophetic hopeful imagining from Isaiah... looking forward to it.

Thank you Ben for reminding me of this beautiful song.  Although I'm not quite sure it'd fit at the point in our service we are looking to fill, it is so lovely I've typed it up for others to enjoy...

How could it be

This baby in my arms

Sleeping now so peacefully

The Son of God the angel said,

How could it be?

Lord, I know he's not my son

Not of my flesh, not of my bones

Still father let this baby be

The son of my love.

Father show we where I fit into

This plan of yours

How can a man be father to the Son of God?

Lord for all my life I've been a simple carpenter

How can I raise a king?

How can I raise a king?

He looks so small

His face and hands so fair

And when he cries the sun seems to disappear

But when he laughs

It shines again

How could it be?

Father show we where I fit into

This plan of yours

How can a man be father to the Son of God?

Lord for all my life I've been a simple carpenter

How can I raise a king?

How can I raise a king?

How could it be

This baby in my arms

Sleeping now so peacefully

The Son of God the angel said

How could it be?

(c) Michael Card 1982

Some of my minister friends are facing very tough times in their churches right now, for all sorts of reasons.

Some of my minister friends are supporting people facing very tough times right now.

Some of my friends are facing tough times in the absence of ministers right now.

Some of them read this, they know who they are.

For you, for them, the words of Isaiah and John, in the Message paraphrase...

The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. For those who lived in a land of deep shadows - light! sunbursts of light! (Isaiah 9:2)

The Life-Light blazed out of the darkness; the darkness couldn't put it out. (John 1:5)

May the Light remain visible in your darkest moments, and hope lead you onwards.

This morning the power went off at church, at least most of it did.  And of course Toddlers were in, so a cold church is not a good idea.  Amazingly the power in the kitchen survived so they could get hot drinks (well their mums/carers could) and they were happy to carry on, sitting in their coats while the children raced round having fun.

Meanwhile I checked every trip switch, every circuit board, every breaker... phoned people to find where the extra ones might be hidden and now know far more about the church power supplies than I ever wished to know!

Having checked everything at least twice, I ventured over the road to the coffee shop to discover they had the same scenario - but just as I reached the counter, zap the power came back on... You either got the power or you don't!  For that moment I did.

Been an interesting week... the heating (now sorted) the 'external hazard' of snow load in the roof (still monitoring; I'll write the book one day) and now the 'loss of grid'.  Keeps me entertained, holds all my past and present together in a way only God can do, and just shows those who said to me either 'maybe God's calling you to be a missionary engineer' or 'fancy that, God usually calls people from caring professions not industry' that actually God does know what the church (or those churches I get called to) needs... a girlie rev who's not phased by the realities of Victorian barns.

Planning for our Carol Service is well in hand and it's going to be great.  One tricky bit is my desire that we find a poem that gives a Joseph perspective on the annunciation (and beyond) - perhaps based on the dream he had in which he was told not to divorce Mary.  A trawl of my poem books and the web has turned up nothing suitable, and the general response from the networks into which my co-planner has links is 'hmm, that's an interesting idea' (or words to that effect).

I'm not asking people to write something for us, I am just wondering it anyone knows of anything already published that we could use?  We don't want twee and we don't want too heavy... so it's a simple task...

If you can help please leave a comment.

Thank you.