Thought for the Week with Graham Hobbs, Minchinhampton Baptist Church

CHRISTMAS and New Year are behind us now.

We must have had a variety of experiences.

A fresh look at the original Christmas stories show how chaotic the first one was.

This year, ours was too at times.

Christmas dinner was spent in a church hall with some folk unable to have a traditional family get together at home.

We made an interesting bunch, “Chaotic,” certainly, yet we enjoyed it.

Between Christmas and New Year, having an assortment of children, in laws, grandchildren and pets made for a less chaotic and definitely enjoyable time.

However, there was a shadow in the background.

I won’t break any confidences other than to say some acquaintances brought their 12 year old child home for a last Christmas together.

It made me so angry, I even expressed some strong feelings to God, not rude ones but still strong ones and it led me to take my grief out with an axe.

Given enough anger, it’s amazing how much kindling wood a person with ME can generate.

In calmer moments, I did some reading.

I found a lovely bit in The Magician’s Nephew, one of C.S. Lewis’ Narnia books, where a child asks the Lion, a metaphor for Jesus, to heal his mum.

For several pages of the book, the child doesn’t get the obvious response he’s so desperate for.

As he looks at the lion’s feet, he feels the lion is interested in other things.

Then he looks up.

The all powerful majestic lion has massive tears in his eyes.

Jesus does feel it too and he cares.

Beyond all the commercial activity and self indulgence that hijacked so much of Christmas 2018, the amazing truth is that we have a God who cares so much that He himself came into our world, the ultimate Christmas present wrapped in a helpless new born baby.

It means that although our life can be messy, chaotic perhaps, God knows.

God understands.

He feels it.

He’s been in messier more chaotic situations himself.

He came through them and wants to bring us through ours, and not just at Christmas.

It’s for every day of 2019 and beyond.

I don’t know how my acquaintances will cope with the chaotic feelings of their child’s funeral this year.

Ideally, there wouldn’t be one.

Dozens of us still pray for a miracle but experience tells me that, whilst God still does do miracles today, He doesn’t always.

I don’t know why.

It’s not that He doesn’t care.

He does.

He knows the pain.

It’s that same Emmanuel, - “God with us,” as it’s usually translated in Christmas Bible readings - who will go through it alongside each of us and, I believe, will still be with us to bring us out the other side.

We used to see posters at this time of year, “A dog is for life, not just for Christmas.”

Take the word, “Dog,” out, spell it backwards and return it to the sentence.

Even in our chaos, that’s the ultimate truth.