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Thought for the Week
December 2015
 
I am occasionally asked to write a piece for the 'Thought for the Week' column in our local free paper.  Here is this month's attempt, for anyone who likes to read my stuff!
 
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For self-confessed Christmas lovers, the countdown to Christmas probably began around August, while the rest of us were uploading our holiday pictures to Facebook. Some people are truly Christmas-a-holics, in love with Christmas and all things traditionally associated with it. 
But for some it is a harder time of year; for the elderly it can be lonely and quiet.  For anyone struggling with grief of any kind, it can be a time where incompatible opposites are in play – the desire to embrace the jollity of the season, coupled with a (sometimes more forceful) desire to hide in a room and only come out when it’s all over.  I write this from experience, facing the memory, each year, of a baby, stillborn, at the height of the Christmas festivities.
For me, the key to facing all of life’s pain and challenges has been not just dwelling in the Christmas story, but going further - following the biblical narrative beyond the Christmas “baby-Jesus-in-a-manger” story, all the way through to what he did  next, on a cross far removed from the joy of his birth.  When that Christmas baby grew up and died, at Easter, for all that is wrong in us and our world, he invited us into a relationship with his Father God, who can feel and heal our pain, love us through dark valleys and draw us through them, stronger in his strength. It may sound far-fetched and improbable, but listen to the stories of any who profess this to be true, and you will hear the same threads of hope, running through each diverse and unique story.
So this Christmas, reflect on him – the true Jesus of the Christmas – and Easter – story.  Visit a church where those who follow him already can point you past the camels and donkeys and make-shift manger, to the One behind it all, whose presence in our lives brings healing, joy and hope ALL year round!

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