Advent Calendars!

When I was little Advent Calendars were of two types: The first type was the "non-religious" where the pictures which were revealed were of snowmen and parcels and Santa Claus and robins - even if the picture on the front was vaguely "religious" the innards certainly weren't! The second type was the "religious" type which usually had either a very arty nativity or a cartoon Bethlehem scene on the front and pictures of angels or wise men or shepherds or donkeys. If it was a particularly "religious" calendar then on the inside of the doors there would be one of the familiar Christmas verses

These days there is one qualifying factor for Advent calendars - they have to provide huge quantities of chocolate for every day of December. If they are particularly indulgent then there is an extra chocolate for Christmas Day (Horror of horrors - my advent calendars used to stop at number 24!!!) and even an extra countdown to the New Year.

It got me thinking about Christmas and how we prepare for the celebration. Are we like the first type of calendar with vaguely religious intentions but then we give in to robins and tinsel. Or are we like the second type where December is a month to be religious, to remember the familiar words and stories but then when January comes its back to normal. Or maybe Christmas is just a time to party - lots and lots of chocolate and then an extra party for New Year.

This December why not try something different - why not take a few minutes in and amidst the busyness to wonder why God should choose to be one of us, to become a baby, to live and care and heal and ultimately to die - the Bible says so that we could live life to the full.

So are we headed for a traditional December? I hope not!

Forgiveness

Hmm. Have you ever struggled to forgive someone, or perhaps to be forgiven. Stephen preached on Sunday about this as part of our being the body series - check out the sermon using the "sermon downloads" link in the column on the right!