JUST WHEN DID you notice the first Christmas items appearing in the shops this year?  Was it September or even earlier?
Every year it seems that the commercial world encourages us to start preparing for Christmas - earlier and earlier.
Let’s be honest.  It does get a bit annoying, doesn’t  it?  It causes us to moan and groan that Christmas seems to be getting earlier each year.
But - and I like a good ‘But’ - when we look back to Scripture, we can see that God prepared for Christmas well in advance too!  Look at the opening of John’s Gospel: ‘Before the world was created, the Word already
existed; he was with God and was the same as God. From the very beginning the Word was with God.’ (John 1:1-2 GNB)
Advent and Christmas is the time of celebration of the incarnation of the Word, the moment at which God came to earth, in the form of his Son, Jesus.
‘The Word became a human being and, full of grace and truth, lived among us.  We saw his glory, the glory which he received as the Father’s only Son.’ (John 1:14 GNB)
We can forget, amid the rush of Christmas, that Jesus had been of God and in God since before Creation itself.  He came among us, at the Father’s command, to bring truth, light and life into a dark world - to be Emmanuel, that is, "God with us".  And that is the most exciting thing about Christmas - that we are celebrating God’s presence among us - the presence of the One who is so great that he created Heaven and Earth but who also loves each of us so much that he came to live among us and die for us, in the form of Jesus. 
Julia and I hope that you will enjoy this time of preparation and the celebration of the arrival of Emmanuel - the Son of God.

Your minister,

 Graham Clarke.