Festive tidings from churches
Ministers look back at 2016 - and forward to new year
Christmas is a time of year when everyone is expected to be filled with joy and wonder.
But, actually, the lead-up to Christmas has become a time whenwh we are often left wondering where the joy is – and no nowonder wonder!
Many Manyp people have come to dread dreadthi this time of year with its commercialismcommer and endless bombardmentbomba of ways to spend your yourpy precious and hard-earned moneymone – and we are all affected.
However, if we can manage to take just a few minutes to draw ourselves away from the world’s expectations of how we should celebrate to the real joy of Christmas we can come to know a peace that no amount of toys or gifts will bring us.
The gift of Jesus, the Christ-Child, from God the Father, was at a time when the world needed God’s guidance.
There was conflict and war and corruption and tension between nations, and no-one knew how it would end.
Human acts had caused so much pain and harm that the world seemed a place without hope.
And it was at this low point in human history that God gave us the greatest gift of His Son.
Today, after years of abandoning God’s ways, our world seems to echo what was happening in the first century.
There are ongoing battles between nations in the Middle East; cities and lives have been destroyed.
And, in the West, there is suspicion and terrorism. Peace couldn’t be further away.
Maybe now is the time for us to change, to abandon the ways of the world and return to the simpler ways in life; reliance on God’s provision.
A challenge for us all this year is to reflect on Jesus’words to His followers:“Peace I leave with you, my peace I give you”and try to work out what that really means to us today.
Have a peace-filled Christmas and a blessed and peaceful new year.
The gift of Jesus from God the Father, was at a time when the world needed God’s guidance