Christmas is a time of surprises! The world could be said to be divided into two kinds of people: those who like surprises and those who don’t! For children, there’s usually a whole world of surprises to unwrap on Christmas Day and the majority of these are embraced gratefully. New toys, new clothes, new books can all be a really enjoyable part of our Christmas celebrations.

The fact that we have Christmas at all is a massive surprise we can be thankful for. God had spoken of sending a Saviour, a Redeemer, into the world for many years, but even though the Jews were eagerly awaiting this Messiah, the manner of His arrival caught everyone by surprise. No one expected a baby from a poor Jewish family to be born in a stable; no one expected the chaos of the influx of people to Bethlehem to be the sign that God’s salvation was about to appear. Christmas reminds us that God has the capacity to surprise us, to do things unexpectedly. The power of the gospel lies in this topsy-turvy way of doing things (see 1 Cor 1:18-25).

Thanks to all who contributed to the home baking stall, which was eagerly enjoyed by all.

Enjoying a hot chocolate…

Festive decorations

It was busy and people were having fun.

Our thanks to all who helped in any way (including staying behind to tidy everything away and mop floors) and to all who attended. We raised £287 from the event.

After the Parent & Toddler Party, we set up for the Christmas market… Thanks to Stacey and Sue who helped with this.

We had craft activities for the children to do.

Gemma also had made some lovely Christmas decorations to sell and Joy had made home-made Christmas cards for us.

Although initially quiet, it got very busy!

Our thanks to all who helped in the kitchen serving drinks or on the cake stall.

It’s always nice to get Christmas presents early!

The adults didn’t get left out, though they’d had to buy raffle tickets to get their prizes! (Most had contributed to the prizes as well; our thanks to all for their support of the group.)

Yesterday morning (which already seems a lifetime ago!), we had our Parent & Toddler Christmas Party. It was lovely to see the children enjoying the play and party food and, of course, their Christmas outfits!

For some of the younger ones, it all got a bit overwhelming…

We had help from Laura and Colette from the Family Centre, making reindeer food as well! We’re very grateful for their weekly support, providing craft activities for the children and advice and help for parents.

Then it was on to party games before the presents and raffle prizes…

God is never early and never late, but always on time. I like to be early to events (perhaps the most famous occasion in my family is when I made everyone turn up for a Christmas meal two hours early because I thought the journey to the restaurant would take much longer than it did…) My son is usually late (a source of contention between us, as you can imagine.) God is never early (which frequently irritates me…) and never late (which I’m glad about!) He created time and though He dwells outside of time, He always does things at the right time. (Gal 4:4)

We may not always appreciate God’s timings (the Psalms are full of prayers beginning ‘How long, Lord?’ – see Ps 6:3, Ps 13:1-2, Ps 35:17), but we can be grateful for the fact that God knows the right time and will always be there at that time.