Heart 2 Heart

  As we prepare for Christmas, I wonder what you’re having to make room for.  Are you having to make space in a bedroom for extra guests or an extra chair or several at your table?  Are you rearranging your furniture to make room for a Christmas tree or even rearranging your outdoor planters to make room for a blow up snowman or Santa?  I wonder if you have time, or consciously make room, for pondering what Christmas is about? This year, somewhere between the tinsel and the turkey, or maybe in the days between year end and year beginning, I invite you to make room for pondering Christ Jesus.  This is after all what many Christians around the world do during Advent.  They intentionally stop and take a pause to remember that first Christmas, which reminds them that Jesus is the Christ child that gave us Christmas.  But why does it matter today, 2,000 plus years later?  I’m looking forward to Christmas 2022.  It seems so much more hopeful than r...

Who would have thought twelve months ago, that seeing each other face to face at home this Christmas would have been such a treat and a challenge. A treat, as after nine months of social distancing, face to face meetings can no longer be taken for granted, and a challenge, because choosing who of our loved ones we ‘bubble’ with needs to be very carefully decided and planned. So how does a different and restricted Christmas affect how we see this year’s celebrations? Is it time to be more focused on celebrating those we love than rushing around buying a glut of gifts and food, especially if your income has been negatively affected this year? Or are the gifts and feasts even more special in a year when other celebrations have been put on hold? In a year that we’ve come starkly face to face with our own mortality and that of those we care about, perhaps Christmas is a time to celebrate life and life in all its fullness, well, as much as regulations will allow. The good news of course i...