Christmas message 2020 from Reverend Ruth Dillon
My dear friends,
What a year this has been!
Our ‘2020 road’ has certainly taken some twists and turns. Some may have been personal to us – an unexpected event, an illness or even a death, yet the global impact of the Coronavirus has been devastating. Out of the blue our perspective changes and we are never quite the same. God moves us from one place and places us in another, quite literally. We have used our houses to worship God, instead of the familiar surrounding of our church buildings.
I have heard it said that Christmas will not be ‘the same’ this year, and yes, that is true. However, one aspect is never changing: God Emmanuel, God is with us.
Yes, the road to Bethlehem was difficult as well, rocky with unexpected twists and turns, tiredness and exhaustion filling each day, yet God’s promise was going to be fulfilled, a promise of Hope, a promise of Commitment and a promise of Love in the sight, sound and touch of an infant baby called Jesus.
Even though our lives may be changing around us, one thing never changes, that a child will be born in the stable of our hearts. As the gift of promise is placed before us in the middle of a muddled world, I pray that we may be like Mary, gently cradling the moist treasured gift of Love.
A Love that will transform chaos to order
A Love that will bring hope into a hopeless world
A Love that will conquer injustice and oppression
Christmas 2020 will be different. However, I pray that this Christmas will be a time that you will remember as being the event that made a difference in our thinking and understanding, of the risk that God took to come in the shape of a vulnerable baby, that was placed in the arms of a teenage mother called Mary.
My prayer for you all is that you may feel the warmth of the Christ child in your heart this Christmas and the light of hope never be extinguished.
Sacred Infant, all Divine
what a tender love was thine
thus to come from highest bless
Down to such a world as this!
(Final verse of ‘See! in yonder manger low’) ©Edward Caswell
Christmas blessings to you all
Ruth, Hannah and William, …. (and Casper) xxx
Beacon Hill United Reformed Church 