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Good morning!
I want to invite you to recall with me a game of hide and seek you’ve surely played, somewhere over your life-time. There’s a friend who is ‘it’ who starts counting down from 50. You run, searching quickly for a good hiding place. You’re still in earshot, just, but before you’ve quite managed to tuck yourself into your hidey-hole they’re shouting, ‘Coming, ready or not!’.

Well, I wonder if that’s how it feels, two days before Christmas. ‘Coming ready or not!’, declares God. Meanwhile the countdown seems to get faster as it gets nearer. It doesn’t matter when you started preparing or how thorough your ‘to do’ list – there’s always another Christmas card to send, another present to buy, another visit to make, another ingredient to find. Be kind to yourself today, especially when you remember all that you’ve forgotten. As they say, at least you remembered you forgot.

Jesus will come, ready or not. Remember that Mary wasn’t ready to have a baby. Remember that Joseph wasn’t ready to become a father. Remember that Bethlehem wasn’t ready to welcome visitors. Remember the innkeeper wasn’t ready to find extra rooms. Remember even the shepherds were busy - abiding – until the angels appeared. I’m not sure who has ever been ready to meet God: yet God comes, ready or not. And there are no regrets.

We may not be ready; we may be busy; we might wish to postpone Christmas. But God is coming, ready or not!

In the words of Sir Jacob Astley dating back to the English civil war, I invite you to pray with me:

O Lord, Thou knowest how busy I must be this day. If I forget Thee, do not Thou forget me. Amen.

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