​

What do you want for Christmas?

 

 

I like to write lists, things that need to be done. I've always done it, it helps me keep them in focus, and it generally means they do get done! It's not perfect because neither am I, and like many people I've put things off, for all sorts of reasons.

 

As we hit the beginning of December I imagine many of you start to write Christmas lists. Things that need to be done: cards to be written or presents purchased, and better still presents hoped for, to be left by the fireplace on Christmas Eve!

 

I wonder how bizarre some of those lists are?: getting decorations from the loft, buying a tree, ordering a turkey, making uncle Richards favourite stuffing, ensuring the appropriate number of crackers are purchased, and in our house - ensuring sufficient tins of Cheese Footballs have been acquired (yes, it’s a tradition - don’t ask!).

 

But how many of us truthfully have “meeting baby Jesus” on our list?

 

Earlier this year we were blessed with our first grandchild. Now, I’m a grown man and not given to tears (honest!), but I remember the joy meeting the little lad for the first time, and what he meant to us as a family. It reminded me of our own children’s arrival and moreover the future he now represents. It was a wonderful moment, and he’s been a joy ever since!

 

So at three in the afternoon on Christmas Day when we’re stumbling our way through the tinsel and wrapping paper for another glass of wine to help lunch go down (well, it is Christmas after all!) have we truly remembered what it's all about? Have we really met with Jesus?; that wonderful, perfect, meek, vulnerable, innocent child, wrapped in swaddling cloths… with the hope of the world on His shoulders, whose company is to be enjoyed for ever more.

 

So, go on… make sure Jesus is top of your list this Christmas…

​

​Andy Haines