Christ-Child Come

A Reading for Christmas Day at St Bride’s by Jon Jelfs

Christ-Child Come

We come to the stable again;
Bearing gifts, maybe,
But perhaps also bearing the deep questions of our souls:
Who am I?
Where am I?
How am I?
What is the problem?
Why do I see so much suffering?

Within the stable we find, in the cry of a tiny babe, 
and in the expectation of all he will become,
the disclosure of God:
the showing in human form of who or what God really is.
To our surprise, we find in him also
the disclosure of ourselves: 
the showing of what is deepest in us,
who we really are and can be,
made in the image of God,
the breath of God in us.

Reflecting on his birth,
these deep questions become an invitation:
an invitation to follow,
to walk his path,
even to be like him.
Accepting who we are and what we have done,
accepting love and forgiveness,
accepting the invitation to new birth ourselves
we may say “Yes” to God’s bidding and participation in our lives.
Why? Because we have seen and known and touched this Love,
disclosed to us through the Christ-child.
If he loves us – we can afford to love ourselves.
If we love ourselves then we are freed to love others too.
If these loves are true, then they will not be contained
but will overflow into the caring, compassionate, faithful and playful love of all.
And so we say: “Christ-child come again to us this day”.