How are your preparations going for Christmas? Are you the super organised kind of person who has everything boxed up and ready far in advance of the season? Or are you the kind of person who is always chasing Christmas and does everything at the last moment? I guess most of us fall between these two extremes. It can be a very frantic time of year depending on your family commitments. But whatever you are doing this Christmas there is one ingredient which will help you to enjoy it , love! It is love which is at the heart of it all and if this is missing or lacking it can be a very miserable time. Scrooge learnt the hard way that love makes all the difference in our enjoyment of Christmas.

Christina Rossetti wrote a poem published in 1885 called “Love came down at Christmas”;

‘Love came down at Christmas, Love all lovely, Love Divine,
Love was born at Christmas, Star and Angels gave the sign.
Worship we the Godhead, Love Incarnate, Love Divine,
Worship we our Jesus, But wherewith for sacred sign?
Love shall be our token, Love be yours and love be mine,
Love to God and all men. Love for plea and gift and sign.’

Whatever your Christmas preparations, let love be the basis of all your activities. Because it is in knowing the love of God that we can enter truly into the joy of receiving Jesus into our hearts and homes this Christmas.

Mark Binney