Melling Community Church

Escape Route

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OK, let’s be honest, how many of us would like to escape for Christmas? Have you looked at your diary for December? If you have 20 appointments/projects (which might just be a posh word for shopping or house cleaning), how many of them are so important to you that you couldn’t dream of cancelling? I’ve been looking at photos of Christmas Day in Australia, most people are on the beach wearing sunglasses and swimming gear. Other people who are more energetic could be in Italy, skiing on Christmas Day, and some adventurous folk could be standing in a dark field wondering where the Northern Lights have gone. 

 

But maybe we are more responsible and have decided to stay here to be with family members, if they haven’t gone travelling. There will be many individuals who expect to spend Christmas alone with only the TV for company. They know that there will not be a knock on the door anytime soon, unless it’s carol singers looking for a bag of sweets or a mince pie. We may feel the need to check that our neighbours are well and stocked up for the season. There are so many ways to spend Christmas, including flying to the other side of the world, or just calling on the lady on the other side of your street, who has just come out of hospital. 

 

It’s possible to be so busy that you forget how it all started. There are large numbers of people in our land now, who sadly, don’t know how it started. Two people who did go travelling, 2,000 years ago, were Joseph and Mary. No holiday for them, and no friendly family members to greet them, even though some of them lived where the journey ended. They were committed to serve God, even though it just made life for them more difficult than usual.

 

An angel explained to Joseph, 

“All this took place to fulfil what the Lord had said through the prophet. ‘The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call Him Immanuel (which means ‘God with us’). When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son. And he gave Him the name Jesus.’ 

 

Like Joseph and Mary, we also are on a journey, and we can choose our own destination and priorities, but let’s remember that the baby grew up to say, 

“Follow Me”