And so it’s coming up to Christmas again. As always, we are encouraged not to overlook the ‘real meaning’ of Christmas, and remember that ‘Jesus is the reason for the season’. All good advice of course, but perhaps the emphasis on what we do or don’t do is not the most important thing. I often feel as though everything depends on me not losing Jesus amongst the wrapping paper, or finding time in a frantically hectic week or two to worship ‘properly’. What is truly wonderful is that, despite the shepherds coming down from the fields and the wise men travelling a vast distance to visit Jesus, Christmas is not really about us finding God at all. It’s about God coming to find us.

In Genesis 3 we read how God came looking for Adam and Eve after the incident with the snake and the fruit of the tree. How amazing! Right from the start of the biblical record, we discover that we have a God who comes out to find us. Jesus told the story of the compassionate Father (also known as the prodigal son) who ran out to meet his wayward offspring. Christmas is all about God coming into our world to rescue us from the mess we have made of it. I like to imagine him watching over us and calling ‘I’m coming to get you!’. I love the poem ‘The Coming’ by R S Thomas. More relevant perhaps to Easter, I think it also sums up succinctly what Christmas really is all about.

And God held in his hand
A small globe. Look he said.
The son looked. Far off,
As through water, he saw
A scorched land of fierce
Colour. The light burned
There; crusted buildings
Cast their shadows: a bright
Serpent, A river
Uncoiled itself, radiant
With slime.

On a bare
Hill a bare tree saddened
The sky. Many People
Held out their thin arms
To it, as though waiting
For a vanished April
To return to its crossed
Boughs. The son watched
Them. Let me go there, he said.

R S Thomas