a Christmas

Well this is my first full item on blogspot. couple of comments from friends of mine. This Sunday (30/11/2008) is the first Sunday in Advent, if you follow the more established Christian traditions. That is the first of the 4 Sundays before the 25th of December, Christmas day,or even Christ Mass Day, the day the Western Christian Church celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ the Son of God, in the Latin a Mass a celebration.

For people like me(Preachers, Pastors etc) it is a busy period, this is were we get wrapped up in nativity plays, Christingle services, an of course the 4 advent services and then the biggy Christmas day.

In England, where I am, it is cold, damp, foggy, and if you are really lucky snow. I have three friends who have different views one in Canada who will have more snow than you know what to do with and one in N.Z who will be in their Summer and one in Aus who will be having Christmas dinner on the beach for the first time!

For those for whom I have postal addrsses we have started the manic period of writing Christmas Cards and getting them in the post before the dead-line to arrive before Christmas.

Now I am not good at all of this. I leave it to the wife, and just nod my head do as I am told..... best way, but a thought for this time of year.

Sending a card is nice it shows you are thinking of people, but how often do you try to stay in touch outside of this period. Is your friendship based on cards for those near and far on high days and holy days .

There is a lesson for all at Christmas whether you believe in its cental theme or just believe it is a winter/summer (depending on where you are) festival.

You see according to Christian thinking; this is the time of year when we recall God, the creator of the big bang, becoming man, his creation. The view is that God needed to experiance being human to know human suffering and after so many years to regain contact with his creation.

Christ was born and died, and some people treat him like....well a Christmas card.... someone we only think about at certain times but we put out of mind at other times.

Christ is a friend, the old hymn tells us "What a friend we have in Jesus all our sins and greaves to bear" someone to tell all our sorrows and worries too.

I saw a bumper sticker once which said "Jesus is a friend for life not just for Christmas" and that I believe. However, for all those who read this consider how much better the world would be if we followed Jesus and put more effort in keeping in touch with our friends.... helping them through their difficult times and good times and not just keeping in contact once or twice a year.

The stories in the Bible tells us a lot about Jesus, and a lot about how God wants us to work together supporting each other.

So this is my Christmas prayer. That we all reach out to friends old and new, not just on the high days and the holy days, but every day, all because of the love God showed to his creation on that Christ-mass day all those years ago

Ian

So this is my first blog on blogspot. A mate of mine has his on here and it seems a lot easier to user than the msn spaces version. Will add photos as time moves on. Hope you find some of the bits interesting. Always feel free to comment on anything I post