Dear Friends,

I wonder if you have ever sat down and thought what Christmas is all about. What does it actually mean to you?

Every year you will hear somebody say that Christmas is really for the children. I wonder what is meant by that statement. Do we really mean that Christmas is of no significance to the rest of us? I wonder could it be that as we have secularised the whole festival so the true meaning has been lost and all we have ended up with is a sentimental story, of a baby born in a manger, having impact only on children.

It is a cosy little story isn’t it? A couple giving birth to their first born in the basic surroundings of a stable, the lovely story of the shepherds, the wise men, the heavenly host of angels. It all goes to make up a wonderful story which we would want to teach our children to know.

The problem is that may be many adults have progressed no further than that simple story. You see what is the Christmas Festival actually marking? Is it the celebration of the Feast of the Nativity in which case we can understand why for some people their faith begins on Christmas Eve and ends sometime on Boxing Day – if not before?

Or could it be that Christmas marks the Feast of the Incarnation? If so then this presents a whole different ball game. For in this case we are not just thinking about a baby born in a manger we are being asked to consider the possibility that God became man in Jesus Christ. That baby grows up and shares our humanity – God is no longer remote from us but is one of us, knowing our struggles, our failures, our frustrations as well as the joys, the successes and the happiness of human life. You may well say, so what! But, of course, there is a point to it all. God came into our world, as this person Jesus Christ, to be one of us so that we could be at one with him. And that is the whole point and purpose of Christmas. It was not just a cosy little story – it was not just a nice thing for God to do. It was, and is, for our benefit for unless we have Christmas there is no hope for any of us. The stark truth is that we cannot manage on our own – Jesus Christ has to be part of our life if we are to lead a full and complete life. And why should any of us settle for half measures.

Yes, of course, Christmas is for the children but it is for the rest of us as well. There is something magical about Christmas. Perhaps we can all share in a piece of that magic which is the unbelievable fact that we are loved so much that God was prepared to send his Son to show us the extent of his love and ask for nothing more than our love in return.

Christmas is in fact the beginning of the greatest love story ever told and we are all characters in that story. So please, this is a plea to all who may read this letter, allow this Christmas to be different to others. Let it be the beginning of a journey of faith, where we accept into our lives not just the story of a baby in a manger but the reality of God becoming man and living with us.

Christmas is for the children and we are all children of our heavenly Father

May God bless you all.

Trevor Farmiloe
Vicar