Lots of running around to do this week it seems. Gift buying to complete, get the house ready for guests, make sure that the food that needs to be bought is in…well you get it.Of course, for some the hectic pace of Christmas is in the past – their lives simple, sometimes lonely, sometimes they aren’t even aware it is Christmas or what that means. Seems we know more people than ever struggling with diseases of the mind that keep them locked in their own thoughts. For relatives, it is difficult to watch, for those that suffer, well we aren’t really sure I guess. I can only imagine – or can I.

Might be us one day. That’s the reality – it’s also a scary thought. I guess I deal with the future by believing that the future has been dealt with by the past – that Christmas was about making provision for me, and you, to know that our lives are part of the plan of God, who chose (before the world was formed) to intervene in history so that my future could be provided for. In Jesus, we find salvation, not just the forgiveness of sin but salvation from aging, illness, death…that’s the promise!

I am not certain whose image this is. I found it some time ago…but I like the image because I see a young couple – so very young – an obedient young couple who are trusting God for the future though it appears that they are under the direction of Casear, yet they are really simply obeying the word of God as Mary carries the Word Of God. Obedience is the surest way of finding joy now and in the future.