A roaring open fire – blazing, sparkling, shining, drawing you in, in to its light, its wonder, its warmth!  You go to warm your hands.  To feel the fire’s warmth. You want to stay and be warm on a cold winter’s night!  When everywhere else is cold, dark, empty, the open fire draws you in, consumes you, mesmerises you with its flames and makes you want to stay, to just be! And before you know it, memories, times past, loved ones long gone, come flooding back.  Come alive again somehow – precious moments that bring you back to another time, another world, in your life, reminding you of who you are, reminding you of where you came from, what really matters, reminding you of  what is important, who is important and what life is all about.  

That fire!  That light shining brightly in the darkness is the new born baby!  Immanuel!  God with us!  

The mystery of God.  The mystery of God becoming a human being will always be just that!  A mystery – wrapped up in that precious tiny baby! So wonderful!  So vulnerable! So fragile! So full of hope!  So incomprehensible – yet makes perfect sense!  What better way to teach us, re-programme us, reorientate us, to who God is! What God is! Because in the birth of a child, this Christ-Child, we will never fully understand.  We will never stop learning and striving to make sense of what God is teaching us and showing us about his Kingdom, about the world he is calling us to be part of and to play our role in making happen here on earth!

Because with that newborn baby what we humans define as being in control, define as being all powerful, being almighty, ruptures and will always collapse into smithereens because it is not divine and is not God’s understanding!

So let that open fire take you to that place where you are in touch with your clay, in touch with who you are called to be. 

 Let it take you to the Christ-Child and allow that child, Immanuel, to fill you with the Divine, the divine power of love, fill you with the divine that we experience when we see the child born for us, to save us and to bring us life and have life to the full!

And with the prophet Isaiah let us: ”Go up on a High Mountain;

Shout with a loud voice; Shout without fear, 

say to the towns of Judah,  “Here is your God!” Is 40:! Our God! Rejoice and be glad because our God is with us now and forever more! 

May God bless you all this Christmas, keep you safe, warm and in good health.   May the Lord protect all those nearest and dearest to you!  God bless you and take care!    

Wishing you all a Blessed and Special Christmas!  Nollaig Shona!