FAITH FILES

MERRY Christmas? It’s hard to be cheerful when Covid stormclouds are gathering once again.

The dilemma: it might be legal to meet up for Christmas, but should we really, even if everyone’s been boosted?

All around there are signs of doom and gloom. We remember previous lockdowns – will we go there again? Hope of a complete return to pre-2020 normality seems a long way off.

Two thousand years ago in Israel there was also a national sense of doom and gloom. Not because of a virus, but an occupying army.

Hundreds of years had passed since they were truly a nation. Now they were ruled by foreigners.

There were long-ago written promises of someone coming to save them, but for most it seemed a vague hope. Many felt that God had forgotten them altogether.

Yet in the midst of it all, rumours spread that a new king had arrived, who would save them. The existing king was spooked and did his best to kill any rival before they were old enough to talk.

This hope didn’t come from any expected source, and it didn’t look anything like most were anticipating – although for the observant, the signs were there.

It wasn’t about saving a nation from an army, but a world from depravity (and that included anyone from the occupying forces who was interested).

Hope doesn’t always come from where we anticipate. We’re all being told to get triple-jabbed in the hope of immunity, but perhaps as Gordon Brown has reminded us, a greater hope would be in worldwide generosity with the vaccine.

In our own personal struggles, we hope that all our problems will be solved, and then we’ll be happy. But often joy comes through kindness shown by others, who stand side by side with us even in the middle of our battles.

And so Hope personified came into the world, not in a palace to honoured princes, but as a fragile baby, born to a teenage mum and laid in a feeding trough.

Jesus declared His mission not on a war horse to overthrow the empire, but on a donkey and a cross, to inaugurate a greater kingdom through conquering death.

This season, let’s look for true hope from the baby in a manger.

Happy Christmas.

Tim Gossling