Now the nativity scene is set up on the mantlepiece, I can’t help but see it when I settle down on the sofa in the evenings. It struck me last night that the characters are either standing or kneeling. Apart from baby Jesus of course, who is always depicted lying on his back – seemingly…
Do you have a nativity scene in your home? Sometimes they come as advent calendars now with a different figure to add each day in the run up to Christmas. When I had my children small, we had a nativity and I remember often glancing at it as the preparations got more intense and the…
This is a question I’ve overheard several times during this past week. Our Church tree arrived last weekend and was set up on Tuesday. Hopefully it will be decorated by some of the younger church members on Saturday, ready for Sunday. Every family has their own tradition as to when the tree goes up and…
A year or two ago, I hunted for a new nativity scene decoration in the shops. I could get Father Christmases on trains, deers and elves. Now I know I could shop on line, but I like to see, touch and get an idea of size and make a stand for wanting Jesus to be…
Have you been gripped by ‘The Traitors’ TV series? It’s fascinating to watch people’s behaviour and what motivates them to turn on their friends, adapt their opinions depending on performances in challenges or throw away phrases, propose and undermine allegiances. Also, what individuals will say to convince others of their constancy. It must be so…
November is a looking back and looking forward month. Lots of past things to remember – Saints, Guy Fawkes, Pilgrim Fathers and Wars. Then the beginning of advent looking forward to Christmas and a New Year. Caught between what has happened and what will happen, when we’re told we should ‘live in the present’. It’s…
You may be attending or organising a ‘Light Party ‘ in the next few days. Most religions have a festival of light at this time of year as nights become longer. I tried to research what light actually is. It’s complicated. No single answer to the question “What is light?” satisfies the many contexts in which light…
For many years I resisted the temptation to watch ‘Strictly’. Eventually I was an outsider in so many conversations from October to Christmas, that I took my sister’s advice and began to watch – first on a Saturday evening, then on a Sunday and finally succumbing to watching the spin off ‘It takes Two’ every…
In Luke 7: 31-35 we have an amazing little parable of Jesus, where he compares the people around him to children playing. A modern day version might be: The people are like children playing at a party. First, they play musical chairs but some wont join in saying they want to play ‘pass the parcel’.…
In a recent prayer meeting, someone said ‘God isn’t a God of muddles’. That set me thinking. In the creation story, God brought order out of chaos. Jesus’ mission was to ‘bring good news to the poor, proclaim liberty to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind, set free the oppressed and announce that…