Stopping days

WE have spent the past few weeks preparing to celebrate Christmas. Now it seems as if it’s all over. The decorations will soon be coming down and the recycling bins full of empty boxes and wrapping paper will line like soldiers along the streets. All those Christmas carols are fading into the distance and the New Year is here.

In Church our minds became fixed on the birth of the Son of God , the Prince of Peace, the Wonder Councillor, Emmanuel, God with us. In the pace of our very busy lives it is often difficult to take time to ponder this great time of preparation. The hustle and bustle of life can take over.

Perhaps the real message of Christmas is to listen again to the call of the Lord who loved us so much that he came among us to rescue us.

Those shopping days to Christmas could easily be stopping days to Christmas. Stop to listen.

Sadly, in my experience, everything around us conspires to keep us from being still and listening to the call of the Lord. We resist the real silence by filling our minds with what might be, jobs to be done letters to be written cards to be sent.

As we begin this New Year perhaps we should be ready to be surprised by the stillness, and the silence. We should be ready to gather the sparks of grace together into a flame. In each one of us these sparks glow. They are our giftedness.

If we gather them together then we become a light for the nations.

As we make those New Year resolutions let one of them be to Listen to the Lord. To listen to his quiet call beckoning us to be his light in our darkened world.

Remember there are only 350 stopping days to Christmas.