HOPE IS ALIVE!
A Christmas and New Year Message from our president, Pastor Tim Moody
Stood in the kitchen, wondering how they were going to feed all the new guests arriving at the inn?
Wrapped up warm around the fire as another chilly evening sets in.
Gazing up at the night sky watching the stars dance to their own, wonderful beat.
A knock at the door.
A chorus of angelic voices.
A blinding star.
We can so often look at the Christmas story like a children’s nativity play, with cues and costumes and a teacher, down on their knees, mouthing the lines to the various characters. The innkeeper, stood behind the door, waiting for that infamous ‘knock’.
But we do well to remember that lives were rudely interrupted that first Christmas as one too many guests knocked the door, the cold night strangely warmed by heavenly hosts and a star that would lead the way. God didn’t wait ‘till the scene was set and the audience were sat quietly to begin the story of Emmanuel, God with us.
Instead, the promise God gave to Adam and Eve in the garden, the rescue plan as old as the earth, interrupted the hustle and bustle of life that first Christmas. A messy stable, some unconventional guests and an escape plan to Egypt isn’t exactly how we might plan a rescue mission to begin, but isn’t it wonderfully comforting to know that the Covid pandemic and the whirlwind of 2020 won’t stop God in His tracks?
As I write this, I’m listening to a song with the line “Hope is alive, Jesus is here”. This year, maybe more than any other year for many of us, we need to hear the truth, that, despite all we have faced, all the distraction, the worry and the hurt:
HOPE IS ALIVE!
I love the wonder of the Christmas story. Can you imagine being any of the people caught up in Jesus’ birth? Would you view it with awe and wonder or merely an inconvenience? Hope alive in a new-born baby or just more guests to sort out?
This Christmas and New Year, I pray you would remember that just because it hasn’t all gone to plan, it doesn’t mean all is lost. Just because this Christmas might look different to the ones we’ve always had, it doesn’t mean hope is lost.
In a lowly stable, with no bed to rest in, the Saviour of the world was born.
“For God so loved the world that He sent His one and only Son.”
I want to declare a message loud and clear from all of us involved in the Gwent Baptist Association:
HOPE IS ALIVE!
And we are excited to see all that God has in store for us in 2021.
We wish you every blessing; we pray for your continued safety amongst these challenging circumstances, and we look forward to journeying with you in the New Year.
Tim Moody
President
Gwent Baptist Association