mystery

In this world of ours we like answers for everything. We can do all sorts of things more or less instantaneously - things which when I was growing up would take time and a conversation. For example I can check my bank balance - or see whether a payment as gone through within seconds on my phone. I can write a letter via email and have it arrive in Australia almost as I hit "send". I can find out how to fix my car, whether it is a cold or the flu and the recipe for chocolate pudding and all very quickly. No annoying queues or dealing with other people.

Christmas pulls against this tide of instant life as it invites us to a conversation. It invites us, not to find out but to engage. It is a challenge for a sound-bite nation to engage in conversation at al, let alone with something as mysterious and counter-intuitive as God being born in human form.

But this is the invitation of the season and it is based in love. Each of us is, in Jesus, reminded that we are a product of God's love - whether or not we can acknowledge that in our own lives. God's love for us is the one thing which we have no control over - God will love us, no matter what and it is because of this that we are invited into this great conversation which starts with an inauspicious birth.

Seeing Christmas as a conversation might be a challenge if we are used to seeing Christmas as a presentation in pictures and sounds. But the birth of Jesus is not just something which is shown to us from a distance - it is something which is given to us in our hearts. Heart and soul we are invited to respond - not necessarily with great eloquence but with simple acknowledgement - thank-you God, you did this for me.

Simple words are always the beginning of conversation - how are you, hello, good to see you. When it comes to this Christmas conversation simply acknowledging God's presence and love in this busy season is always the place to start.

If we are keeping Advent we have the task of both continuing our conversation with God - gathering up all the pieces in honesty and humility - but also of preparing ourselves to converse anew. This combination of history and re-birth is so much a part of the Christian life that we can begin to take it for granted - that God is with us in who we have been, are and will be. But it is a gift - a gift we see at this time of year in a birth, both like and unlike any other. A birth which demands that we leave the ordinary and acknowledge who we really are. A birth which takes all of us and invites us into relationship with God.