Thought for the Week: Incarnation

The Christmas story is very familiar and is often approached in a child like manner, which in my opinion, is not a bad thing. Stories are often at their best when they are simple. There is however a downside as we often feel simple stories are 'just nice stories' that give us a warm and fuzzy feeling that does not relate to our lives. The Christmas story is anything but warm and fuzzy and certainly does relate to us directly here in the 21st century. As we remember the nativity, we are putting back together the most momentous occasion since creation. We are 're-membering' God being with us in the form of a vulnerable baby born in the most humble of situations. The King above all kings, from the word go, is setting out the plan for a kingdom that is unlike anything we can imagine where, to quote the prophet Isaiah, "Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain". (Isaiah 40 4). As we worship and pray, eat our Christmas meals and open our gifts, let us remember this is not a distant story telling of God being with us 2000 years ago. Let us remember that we are part of that story here and now and that God is with us! May each one us know that God is present with us here and now and may we know the joy, the peace, the grace and the love that is God, Emmanuel. Happy Christmas.

Rev'd Nigel Taylor