We are in the season of Advent – a time of preparation and looking forward to Christmas when we remember the birth of Jesus Christ.
Christmas this year will be very different for most of us: reduced numbers round the dinner table, less socialising and parties, for those of us with children or grandchildren we will miss their school concerts or nativity plays, and it will be a very different Christmas too in our churches without our traditional Christmas carols. Covid-19 has swept across the world and we wonder when life will ever be normal again. Yet we have hope that there is light at the end of the tunnel with the discovery of vaccines to combat the disease.
The Christmas message is one of HOPE – Jesus was born into an occupied country in a stable. Throughout His earthly life He demonstrated God’s love in action as He crossed cultural, social, racial and gender boundaries. He was God in human form identifying with His people, sharing their joys and sorrows and challenging the religious and political authorities on issues of justice and poverty. So often I hear people say: “Where is God in the mess of this world?” One of the names by which Jesus is known is Immanuel, which means God is with us. There is no place or circumstance where God is not! Sometimes we are too busy with our own agendas and our own idea of what Christmas should be.
Maybe this year we could just pause as we put up our decorations and buy presents and reflect on the fact that the promise given to the Israelites centuries before the birth of Jesus holds true for us today in whatever situation we find ourselves: “All right then, the Lord Himself will give you the sign. Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel (which means ‘God is with us’).” Isaiah 7:14.
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