Village News - Stroud District Community Websites - Stroud District ...

A Christmas Letter from Rev’d Diana
the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with
God….and you will bear a son, and you will name him Jesus.” Luke 1. 30-31
In a few weeks time all our preparations for Christmas will be over. Pantomimes,
children’s nativities, presents and Christmas wrapping paper, all back in the box for
another year. Life will be almost back to normal, and yet the message of Christmas is one
that comes to change and transform us- it is a message which says God is with us.
In his Christmas Message to the Diocese Bishop Michael writes to us in these words:
Christmas
I sometimes get frustrated at how often we hear that “Christmas is for the children”.
Clearly it is for children, but its message, its good news, is equally for adults too. Where
children are greatly at an advantage, is that they have a beautiful sense of wonder. They
stand in awe and delight in something that entrances them with a facility we sometimes
seem to lose when we grow older.
There are several key messages in the Christian gospel for Christmas time. Jesus is born in
a stable among the poor and, at the end of a year that has seen economic bad news
dragging many people down into poverty and others left there, that is gospel. The birth of
Jesus was heralded by angels greeting the arrival of a Prince of Peace and, in a world
where there is violence and tyranny, that is good news too. And there are more such
messages.
But none of these, however, important as they are, get to the heart of Christmas. The
heart of Christmas is Emmanuel, literally, God with us. It is the truth that in Jesus it was
God, the Creator of heaven and earth, who became one of us - didn’t just look like one of
us, but became one of us, lived our life, joined heaven and earth. Looking at all the
representations of that birth in cribs and Christmas cards, singing that story in carols,
watching children re-enact it in their nativity plays, ought to bring us all, adults, as much
as children, back to a sense of wonder, full of gratitude, awestruck by a profound and lifegiving
mystery.
As we read Bishop Michael’s words, let us remember that the shopping days will come to
an end- and yes there really will come a moment when we can’t do any more. Let us pray
that when we reach that point we will find the child in the manger, Jesus Christ, and know
in our hearts and in our deepest longings, that the God of Love reigns.
This Christmas do come and join the journey to Christmas Day. Come with the children
and sing carols on the Green, come and light Christingles at the Christmas Crib Services,
feel welcome at all the many different services in our three beautiful churches over the
Christmas Season. And may the love and the light of the Christ Child be with you this
Christmas and always. Emmanuel- God with us
With love Diana
3