by Michael Parkinson, a lay reader at St Mark's, utley

SO how was it for you? How was Christmas for you - personally?

Hopefully it has been a wonderful experience - a time to enjoy a true celebration of the birthday of Jesus Christ? But on the other hand.

Perhaps you are glad it's all over? Perhaps you have, sadly, proved the experts to be right when they say that Christmas can be one of the most trying times in our lives. Bad for relationships. Too easy to eat and drink too much. Too easy to spend money we have not got. Too easy to celebrate in ways which are over so quickly, pleasure which has all gone by the following morning. In fact, a time when it is too easy to act in haste and then spend ages in regret.

Perhaps you have been lonely this Christmas, literally on your own, or even lonely in a crowd, longing for someone to really talk to.

Perhaps we all need to understand afresh the truth that Christmas without Christ is not Christmas. Without Christ it becomes a mere reflection of the winter pagan festivals which existed before it in which the only person at the centre was the reveller - I.

The fact is that the baby Jesus grew to be a man - no ordinary man but God himself in human form.The God who loves us so much that he died to save mankind, who defeated death itself and rose that we might live.

The God who lives today and abides in the hearts and lives of those who are prepared to accept Him, not just at Christmas but in all aspects of our lives. The God who really Cares, who gives us Hope, who Reveals Himself to us through His word, the Bible, who teaches the real meaning of service to one another, and in whom we can Trust without reservation.

As we look into the new year, how about wrapping ourselves in His Care, accepting the Hope He gives, in His Revealing word, following His example of Service and Trusting Him to support us in all we do. CHRST with I wrapped in the middle! Christ is the only source of the real life which God intended us to live. Without Him all is mere gloss. He is the only friend who can really be trusted and who will never desert us no matter how much we may desert Him. May we have a Christ centred New Year, even though we may not have enjoyed a Christ centred Christmas.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.