Woolworths is closing. I cant quite believe it. The home of my favourite pic'n'mix is to disappear from the high street. Market analysts reckon that this wont be the last big shop to go under in the recession. I was talking to an electrician the other day who was telling me that he fully expected to lose his job the week before Christmas as the firm had no more orders on the books in the new year. Things like this always make us think about money. We think about how we should restrict our spending this Christmas . . . just in case. The credit is well and truly crunched.
Why have we developed such a fixation and stress inducing drive on making sure that we buy the right presents? We run around for weeks looking for perfection. Instead, we burn ourselves out so that for the few days we are off work to celebrate the birth of Jesus we are so tired and exhausted that we sleep, sleep, sleep.
Perhaps, as the financial markets are resetting themselves, people will reset their priorities and what is important to them. Perhaps people will stop concentrating on trading presents but will again focus on the presence that God revealed over 2,000 years ago when he sent his son down into the earth. God opened a channel for communication. It was a personal message to humankind - you are so important to me that the best I can do is to send my son to deliver the message and be sacrificed in the process. That is the cost of God's presence with us.
The study this week takes a look at some of the main characters in the Christmas story and gets you to consider some hard questions about where your heart lies this Christmas time.
Read the study here and then have a go at this little computer game!
Happy Christmas!
Tim
