Take 5

  So here I am at Christmas Wonderland being Santa’s little helper and taking photos of children and families with Santa.   Christmas songs are playing, heaps of families are lining up and I am having fun chatting to children, mums and dads, grandparents, a bunch of teenagers.    I turned to one boy, he’s maybe 7 or 8 years old, and asked him, “Are you ready to have your photo taken with Santa?” He looked at me as though I was crazy.   “No!” he declared loudly, “I haven’t come to have a photo with Santa, I came to find God!”   Stunned silence. His family gasped, then desperately tried to hide their laughter.   The young man was very serious.   “I am glad,” I say thinking very quickly on the spot, “you will find him in the next room with Mary and Joseph.” “Can I have a photo with him?” Whilst I joined his family laughing, this boy’s words stopped me in my tracks. I looked around the crowded scene.   I saw, I mean really saw, the people who c...

My eye caught a Christmas ornament and yes, it was in the reduced for quick sale section! And, yes, I bought it. The ornament a simple house shape to hold a tea candle has become my new favourite Christmas decoration. I have taken to lighting it in the early morning or late at night just to watch the glow of the candle inside the little house shining through the windows, and the roof. However, it is more than a pretty ornament. It has become a reminder to me that Jesus, the light of the world, the glory of heaven, stepped down into our darkness, born into an ordinary home, in an obscure village. Jesus, the light, came to live with us to be with us, “ to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace ,” to quote Zechariah’s song in Luke 1.78-79. Jesus’ coming not only lit up the sky with angels, it lit hope in those who would receive him into their life. Truly God with us, and here is the most wonderful mystery, God in us! Paul...