Thoughts for the Day

The birth of Jesus

In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. All went to their own towns to be registered. Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David. He went to be registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

(Lectionary, New Revised Standard Version)

Thoughts

Are you afraid of the dark? We may not own up to it, but most of us don't like walking in dark lonely places, and many children have 'night lights' for years. Perhaps we lay in bed imagining the world outside our bedroom was peopled with monsters. Certainly our fears and worries seem more terrible at night! Then the future can be dark. We don't know what is out there six months or six years hence. So too, sometimes like now, the world seems dark with times of sickness, violence, injustice and poverty.

But Christ was born into the dark, and whatever else is out there in the dark, there is Christ. The darkness can never quench the light. That tiny baby, Jesus - our Lord and Saviour - came into a dark world so that we should never be wholly overwhelmed by the darkness. We read in John's Gospel that 'The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.' (John 1.5)

If we keep our eyes on the light which is Jesus Christ, we shall never be forsaken. There is no place where Christ is not, it is only for us to seek Him out, and when we have sought Him, no place, no situation, nothing, is ever so dark again.

Heavenly Father,
we praise and thank You
for Your plan to bring all people
into Your kingdom of love and peace
through the birth of Your Son Jesus,
born as a baby in Bethlehem.
We thank You for the willingness of
Mary and Joseph to accept Your will
and obey Your commands.
May we be as quick to listen and follow
Your Son today, and in the future.
Amen.