Warm Greetings this Christmas, from Faiths Act Leicester

During this Christmas season, I wished to share a special insight by one of my friends, who placed into words the beauty of this season much better than I could. I wish each one of you a special Christmas, as I and Christians across the world remember the birth of a remarkable man in history, Jesus of Nazareth.

As the joyful and rich Christmas season approaches, we all look forward to the lovely music, the beautiful liturgies, moving sermons, nice presents and big dinners. I hope it will also be an event that touches your innermost self, your life in family and community.

I see the celebration of the birth of Christ as the celebration of the greatest of mysteries. In the baby Jesus, God becomes Emmanuel, "God with us". In the incarnational Christ, God reveals what He is like. He shows us through Christ that He is awesome, and the immensity of His love is beyond our conception. He is so well acquainted with everything about us, details that even we're not interested in, like how many hairs we have on our head. His goodness reaches out to us with great intensity.

As Jesus wandered the Galilean countryside with no place to lay his head, He was showing us what God is like through his love, his touch, his breath, his life. He was in the homes of lepers; the poor were all around him. He lived close to those who suffered. He showed the world another way to live. He demonstrated God's limitless love and goodness.

At Christmas, He is reminding us once again that He wants to share His divine life with us. Paul says, in Him we live, and move, and have our being. We can then develop the same divine capacity for love and compassion. God can then radiate His warmth, His tenderness and His healing through us to others. He can enable us to see the difficulties and sufferings of others, and reach out to them.

We can meet Him in the sewers of the slums or in the halls of academia; in the poor children we carry in our arms or in the board rooms of the corporate world. We are invited to the fullness of life in God's community of brother and sisters. When we catch a glimpse of the beauty of the Kingdom of God on earth, it is so dazzling that our eyes are forever fixed on it and we will never need to find ourselves heavily burdened by lifeless toil and consumption, by the loneliness of independence and riches.

As I call you to mind this Christmas season, I ask for God's blessings on you. I pray that He will fill your life with beautiful moments and that you will be aware of how special and how unique you are. When you go to your hidden place deep within yourself and confront your deepest feelings, the storehouse of your hopes, all your needs, all your dreams, your emotions, your reason, even your unspoken fears, I pray that you will meet Christ at the centre of your soul. May you feel His warm embrace next to your breast and receive His blessing and He places His dear hand on your head. May you encompass the essence of who you are in Christ as He reveals Himself to you in your hidden realm. May you receive from Him boundless energy to carry out your tasks, some of which may be intensive and complex.

At this time of giving, in gifts of ourselves and material goods, I hope that you will remember those who have only themselves to give this Christmas. Remember those both in Leicester and Lilongwe, the Midlands and Malawi, who are in need at this time. And remember that as many of us celebrate in our families, families across the world will be doing likewise, prizing love for one another at this festive time. I pray that each one of you will have a blessed, heartfelt Christmas, a relaxing holiday season, and a refreshing New Year.

Michael Tweed

Faiths Act Fellow