Let’s try something different this week. If you are over ten years old -as I suspect you might be- find a child under ten, sit them down with you and read these few words together. Stop now and then and talk with them about the story, explain the big words and listen to their questions. Alternatively, if by any chance you are under ten, then read them yourself and if there is something that puzzles you, then find an ‘over-ten’ to talk with you. Either way, sit back and enjoy!

 We are told by the Gospel writers that some 2000 years ago the Romans, who were in charge in Jerusalem , decided to count the number of people in Judea . They told the people to return to their home-town to be counted.

 So Joseph, who belonged to King David’s Family, began the journey back from their home in Nazareth to Bethlehem , David’s city, with Mary, his wife. Mary was expecting a baby. It was a difficult journey, without all the modern comforts of travel. When they arrived, there was no-where to sleep. Every place was full up with visitors.

 So they slept out the back, with the animals in a barn, and it was there that her son Jesus, was born.

 Mary’s cousin, Elizabeth, had also been expecting her baby and when she gave birth to her son, his father, Zachary, wrote the boy’s name on a tablet: “His name will be John”

 Everyone was surprised for John was not a family name, but Zachary would not change his mind. “His name will be John”

 Many years later, when Elizabeth ’s son, John and Mary’s son, Jesus grew up, it was John who first went about preparing the people for the teaching of Jesus. John was indeed preparing the way of the Lord. And this is what we have been doing during the days of Advent, preparing ourselves for the Coming of Jesus. ‘Prepare the way of the Lord”. Each candle of the Advent wreath has been one more step on the journey. The big white candle in the centre is the birthday candle.

 One of the writers of the Old Testament, the Books of the Bible that tell us the story of the Hebrew people in the years before Jesus, was a man we call by the fine name of Isaiah. His words helped prepare for the coming of Jesus. His words are the words of Advent.

 Isaiah lived about 2,700 years ago, that is nearly 700 years before the birth of Jesus. He is called a prophet because he wrote about things that would happen to the Hebrew people. He lived at a time when there was great trouble. He tried to give them hope in the future and tell them how they should live to please God.

 One of the things he told them was that a Saviour, ‘a special one’, would come to save the people. His name would be Emmanuel, that is, ‘God with us’. In one of his books, he wrote: ‘For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace’.  That sounds like a pretty great person, powerful and strong. The baby boy born in a borrowed barn seemed a far cry from those words. ‘Hey, that was a big surprise!’

 Yet when he was born, some young men who were looking after the sheep in the fields above the town saw a brightness in the sky and heard these words. ‘Glory be to God on high and on earth peace to men of good will’. We still say those words together when we meet to share the Eucharist in church.

 So it is time to celebrate the birth of The Jesus Child again and as we all know, birthdays are times of pressies and parties, friends sending cards and happy parents sharing with us the joy of another year.

 It is the time of nativity plays at school, the re-telling of the story. One year in school when all the parents had gathered for our play, a young Mum who had given birth to a baby some three weeks earlier, sat on the front row with her new-born baby in our nativity crib. No-one else knew, until part way through the baby decided to wave his hand and suddenly everyone realised the truth.

 Yes, just like that young baby, the Christ-child is real, we have prepared the way of the Lord and he is again with us. Happy Christmas everyone and thank your parents for having you.

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