Coming Up To Christmas

Well, December seems to be a pretty busy month, and I'm fairly sure it's busier this year than last year. There are all sorts of events that people go to or put on just at this time of year, and I've been invited to lots. So many in fact, that I actually can't go to all of them, as some of them clash.

At the beginning of the month, there were only a few that I knew of, and now it's almost reached double figures. And that's without all the normal things I do in a week anyway. It's getting to the point where I almost don't have an evening free, though it's not there yet. Some of them were organised back in October, and some of them have just been decided on this week.
 There is one cinema trip, two plays, three Christmas drinks, one meal out, and one film at someone's house. That I can remember, anyway. There would have been another party, but that was one of the things that clashed. It's nice to so popular, and all of these people are good friends, so I do definitely want to see them. Some of them I haven't seen properly for quite some time now. And the films are both ones I definitely want to see, one of them for ages. I don't like seeing films on my own, so it's unlikely I would have seen them otherwise. One of them is 'Scrooged', which I particularly want to see, as I like to try to read or watch one version of 'A Christmas Carol' every year at this point, and that's one I haven't seen yet. So, it looks like it will be a very enjoyable and social time leading up to Christmas, which isn't the case every month...

But, while I think this is a great thing, and I definitely am going to be joining in (as a personal thing, mulled wine is one of the best things about Christmas, in my opinion-and roasted chestnuts); I have also been thinking about the other run-up to Christmas. You know, what Christmas is all about. That time of great sacrifice, where God led by example. It was a sacrifice for others as well, but essentially, it was all down to God. It's easy to think of Easter as a time of sacrifice (yes, remember, the two are linked), but not so easy to think the same at Christmas. I remember a friend once told me that she had a new appreciation for the Christmas story after the birth of her first child. She said in seeing just how helpless a baby actually is, and how dependent on her for absolutely everything, she just how vulnerable God had allowed Himself to be-and that thought really brought it home to me. I kind of realised before that God's sacrifice started there, rather than at Good Friday, or even when He first left home to become an itinerant preacher; but this really showed me how much love and trust He had in humans. And if He had that much trust then, it's not (quite) so difficult to believe that He might have some trust in me, too. And in you.