Category Archives: hope

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Christmas, faith, God, hope, Jesus, love, Religion, theology

Luke 2:1-7

We were busy enough as it was.  All these people, coming home to register.  Just two more?  Well I suppose we can squeeze them in, but these are definitely the last two!

We had a nice life, settled, sorted – just going along.  But letting that couple in that night changed everything, nothing was ever quite the same again afterwards.

We opened our lives, and after what happened here, our hearts too – and somehow, without us realizing, God moved in.  Jesus came here.  How could things ever go back to how they had been?

New life was born here, changed priorities, opportunities presented, hope re-kindled.  And with that welcoming of God, came a whole rush of other people to welcome too…

Lord, your coming changes everything.
I thought life was ok,
but then you burst into it.
And everything is somehow different,
even when it appears the same.

You have brought your life,
your hope,
your presence.

As I welcome you
may I make room,
and allow you to have an impact
on what you find there.

Taken from my 2015 book Voices Through Advent and Christmas, available through Moorleys

A Christmas Song by Wendy Cope

Christmas, faith, God, hope, Jesus, love, peace, Religion, theology, , ,

I am very grateful to my lovely friend who shared this poem with me – acknowledging that Christmas isn’t always the scene of bliss and contentment that we are led to believe, but can be a time of pain and fear

A Christmas Song

Why is the baby crying
On this, his special day,
When we have brought him lovely gifts
And laid them on the hay?

He’s crying for the people
Who greet this day with dread
Because somebody dear to them
Is far away or dead,

For all the men and women
Whose love affairs went wrong,
Who try their best at merriment
When Christmas comes along,

For separated parents
Whose turn it is to grieve
While children hang their stockings up
Elsewhere on Christmas Eve,

For everyone whose burden
Carried through the year,
Is heavier at Christmastime,
The season of good cheer.

That’s why the baby’s crying
There in the cattle stall:
He’s crying for those people.
He’s crying for them all.

Wendy Cope

 

Elizabeth- God’s Timing

Advent, faith, God, hope, love, Religion, response, theology

Taken from my 2015 book Voices Through Advent and Christmas, available through Moorleys

Based on Luke 1: 24-25

So, there I am, suddenly find myself pregnant.  Zechariah had heard right all along!  This child growing in me.  God working in and through me.  Who knew!  God is good.  People will be able to see now what God has called me to.  They will see.  He wasn’t punishing me.  He was waiting for the right moment, his exact timing for what he needed to do.  He needed me and it has happened.

Thank you Lord
for your timing,
right timing,
to work in me.

Help me not to push things along
by my agenda,
but to work with yours.

Give me patience,
grant me strength,
may I live in hope,
as I wait for you
and what you are going to do.