Dear friends,

As we begin the season of Advent, I pray we will keep Hope, Love, Joy and Peace in our lives. These are the true gifts of Christmas. These are the gifts money can’t buy. these are the gifts that last, because they come from the Spirit of God in our lives.

Perhaps we can remember as children the hope of a special gift, perhaps it was a bike or a game or a …………..? My dad’s sister in England always sent us four children a small tine of English Toffees each.When I reflect on this tradition, I realise the gift itself didn’t cost a lot of money – but it took effort to package them up and then there was the cost of posting them all the way from England to Australia.

I’m sure there were many reasons not to send the little tins of toffees. Can you imagine the nay sayers? They’ve got toffees over there. The postage is too expensive. It isn’t worth it!But every year the little tins of toffees were there on Christmas morning. I’ve come to realise over the years that those little tins of toffees represented love. In fact they represented God’s love because they represented faithfulness, reliability, Joy, generosity and effort.

Is there some small thing you like to give someone for Christmas, like a card, a book, a photo??? I encourage you to keep up the tradition because it’s often the small things that mean so much!

At Christmas time the birth of the baby Jesus reminds us to look out for the small signs of God’s presence with us – the smile of a baby, the carefree play of children, the words of encouragement and gestures of love offered by friends. I pray you will enjoy the season of Anticipation and Preparation for the coming of the Christ Child and open your hearts, minds and lives once more to our God of small Surprises.

Wishing you all a blessed, joyful and peaceful Christmas. In the love of the God

Rev Frances