I think my most enduring christmas memory is as a boy running up and down the sitting room, almost delirious with anticipation waiting for the family to gather so we could open the presents.
The excitement came from the awareness that my hopes for a particular gift were about to be realized.
The bible tells us that ‘hope differed makes the heart sick’ but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life. It is this fulfillment that is the embodiment of christmas. Jesus appearing was, and is the greatest result in human history. Jesus coming has the potential to fulfill the collective longings of all humanity over all time. There is no hope, no desire, no dream, no passion that cannot find it’s completion in Jesus.
I have been in full-time ministry for over a decade and I am more like the little boy running up and down the sitting room than ever before. The hope for this country to find it’s identity in jesus is more alive today than in all the 34 years I have been a christian. More people are being born again than I can ever remember, more people coming alive in the spirit, more people finding hope fulfilled.
There is every reason to confident in the future, not because of some amazing scientific discovery or because we might just save the planet if we start drinking decaf and walk to work wearing hemp suits but because JESUS IS ALIVE.
happy christmas