“I’m dreaming of a....”

AND I wonder what your hopes and dreams are this Christmas and for the coming year. For yourself; for the world.

In the Christmas narrative, as you may recall, God spoke to Joseph `in a dream` and sometime afterwards God used the same method to direct the Magi from the East away from Herod’s enmity.

Famously in 1963 Martin Luther King publicly gave his “I have a dream” speech which was a landmark for the issue of race relations in the US and across the world.

The Everly Brothers, Billy Fury and Abba were all singing about dreams around that time too.

Christmas is all about God speaking and speaking to you and me. “The Word” says St John, “became a human being and lived here amongst us” and therein is the declaration that JESUS is the perfect embodiment of everything God wants to say to us.

A real person who brings the whole message about life, about death, about here and hereafter, in Himself, from Father God and into our world.

Who comes to carry the penalty for humanity’s faults and failings (yours and mine) and Who eventually will overcome even death itself to open up a gateway to heaven for ordinary flesh and blood. God’s Word to us of Hope, Love, Forgiveness, Life. JESUS; which name means Saviour.

So what might God be saying to you this Christmas, in Jesus, and how does that shape your hopes and dreams for the coming days?

Without a shadow of a doubt, Dr Luther King’s dreams were inspired by what he heard from God, and his Ministry echoes still down through the ages.

It was referred to again only this week in the Alabama Senate elections. So what about you? What is God saying to you? And “Are you listening?” as another line from a familiar Christmas song enquires.

A very Merry Christmas to us all.

Thank you for reading The Question of Faith through the year.

And a very Happy and hope-filled 2018 to you, your households and your neighbourhoods.