At this time of year I am personally and professionally absorbed into retelling the historical Biblical Nativity story as remembered and written down for all future generations to read and interpret.
It doesn’t make sense without acknowledging faith and mystery and putting it into the context of other storyline threads of the Holy Bible. One could read of covenant love, or of salvation or of liberation. Some wonderful insights into God and how he intervenes and cares for his creation, us!
In particular, the Nativity narratives in the Gospels, that include a young couple Mary and Joseph, shepherds, wise men, even angels and a bright star, very simply inform me that God came into our time and space to reveal his closeness and his interest in us. Emmanuel, God with us, is seen as Jesus, His Son, is born and grows up showing us what God is like.
So not able to evidence it, not able to argue for or against, but can only witness a personal faith in the reality that the Nativity can only be experienced though faith eyes and the childlike wonder which accepts mystery!
For me then, Christ is truly in CHRISTmas!
Rev Frances Ballantyne
Spalding Methodist Church
