There has never been a year I have looked forward to Christmas as much.  Warmth, light and cheer are all I want.  The past couple of months have brought a lot of stress and strain; the prevailing weather has been storms of pain and darkness.  Worst thing of all was that I lost a wonderful pastor and friend last week.  I don’t feel I have the right to claim grief for him, when so many loved and knew him more, but he did have an amazing gift of making you feel you were the most important person in his life during the moments he was with you.  It was only at his thanksgiving service at the start of this week that I fully realised this feeling of privilege had been shared by many, many people.

My parents have been having a tough time recently too – one with a broken hip, then a dislocated new hip and the other brought into hospital for multiple tests for Lime’s disease.  The Royal has seen too much of the Finnegans recently!

I’ve already talked about the stresses of moving house, made worse last week when my wee girl told me she was on her own in the playground most of the time.  But things are getting better now, I think.

I just walked into the kitchen to see a black cat trying to push its way through a partly open window and I quickly shut it.  Darkness, I’ve had enough of you, Light of the World come!

That’s why I, we all, need Christmas.  A reminder that at the beginning of all things, God spoke into the darkness saying ‘Let there be light!’  Then centuries later the Great Rescue happened when He came into the darkness to shine His light into our hearts.  Surely there is no better joy than that.