Dear Friends,

At the start of December, during the Season of Advent, we prepare ourselves once more for the birth of Jesus Christ, who was born in a manger in Bethlehem at Christmastime. We remember how God had promised his people such a Saviour a long time. We hear again how a young woman accepts the privilege of being chosen to be Jesus’ mother and how an expectant nation is called upon to change their ways in readiness for his coming, by John the Baptist.

In the person of Jesus Christ, God was about to do something totally new. God was going to be born as one of us. He was going to experience human life, with all of its highs and lows for himself, including the feelings of rejection and pain, when his only Son was put to death by those he had created and come to redeem. Ultimately, that pain and suffering would be transformed into resurrection joy when he rose again from dead, three days after being put to death on a Roman cross.

Jesus’ coming to us at Christmas has a specific purpose. He shows us what God is like and the standards of behaviour that he expects from us. Through faith in him, He also enables our wrongdoing to be forgiven and gives each of us a way back into a relationship with God, which transcends even death itself. That is a mark of just how much our God loves us. And that is why we celebrate our Saviour’s birth.

A Happy and peaceful Christmas to you all!

God bless,

Andrew