Thought for the week

43:1 But now thus says the LORD, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. Isaiah 43:1-7

The Christmas tree is down, the cards binned, the fairy lights are out, the candles snuffed, the decorations tucked away for another year. Twelfth Night is past and the Three Wise Men have gone home by another way...

Are you like me – do you feel that a little colour has gone out of life after the whole razzmatazz of Christmas?

Maybe you like to take the Christ out of Christmas – make it an unknown quantity, Xmas or a politically correct ‘ Winter Festival’ – and just enjoy a moment of colour, good cheer and a fine family blow out at the dark of the year.

But maybe, for a moment, among the stress of shopping for food, decorating the house, fighting crowds to buy presents, cooking the turkey, laying in the booze, you caught a glimpse of the mystery, the wonder and the great hope of Christmas: that God is with us, that ‘ Low within a manger lies He who made the starry skies’, that the whole of creation kneels before the Child of Bethlehem.

Would it not be wonderful if we were able to carry that feeling through the frosts of February and the winds of March: able to feel that, with the angels of Heaven, we could give glory to God and that each one of us could spread out peace and goodwill towards all whom we meet; to the immigrant, to the sick and lonely, and to those who are in need? Who knows where a movement like that would end.