We had two Christmas Eve birthdays to celebrate yesterday, made more special because they involved members of the same family: great-grandfather and great-granddaughter.

Ironically today, Christmas Day, I am pondering Easter eggs. This is not, as some might fear, the equivalent of the supermarkets’ desire to confuse seasons and move us on from one festivity to the next with no time for contemplation. It is because I am thinking about hollowness.

Hollowness in Easter eggs is a perfectly acceptable feature, a way of forming the chocolate into the shape we want, a shape that is representative of new life.

But hollowness in life, in how people feel, is far from pleasant and rarely acceptable, especially at festive times.

Hollowness, feeling empty or bereft, feeling that there is no more purpose or hope for us, often follows bereavement, but the feeling can come at any time, especially following loss or trauma (the breakdown of a marriage or relationship, the loss of a job, even that much-anticipated retirement) or even at any time in life when we stop long enough from our frantic busyness to contemplate the meaning of life and eternal things. Hollowness is a poignant reminder that life as it is currently, even with all its joys and celebrations such as Christmas, is not yet perfect.

But that chocolate Easter egg reminds us of a life to come when hollowness does not have the final word, and that hope carries us forward into a new year. Though we may feel the weight of sin and the heaviness of loss now, we have the assurance of Jesus that our hollowness can be filled. ‘Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.’ (Matt 5:4) He is able to fill our hollowness through His presence and the promises He brings.

We often talk of ‘lightbulb’ moments or ‘seeing’ an answer to a problem; sometimes, that seeing comes gradually (a little like how energy saving bulbs take time to warm up and let the full light shine through them) and sometimes suddenly. If we have very little light, everything we see appears shadowy and in outline, but if we have more light, things seem clearer and brighter. Too much light can dazzle us and leave us blinded.

Light is essential to life; if we have too little sunlight, we will suffer from a vitamin D deficiency which leads to an increased risk of death from cardiovascular disease, cognitive impairment in older adults, severe asthma in children and even cancer. Artificial light is helpful, but not the same as the ‘real thing.’ God describes Himself as light (see John 8:12, 1 John 1:5). Jesus is the light who has come into the world (see John 1:1-5). Moreover, His Word gives light (see Ps 119:105, Ps 119:130) – giving us access to truth and life.

The result of this light is that we are called to live in the light and walk in the light of the Lord (see Is 2:5, Is 9:2, Is 49:6). The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers so that they cannot see the light of the gospel (2 Cor 4:4), but God shines His light into our lives, leading us into that true knowledge of Him (2 Cor 4:6). The result of this is an awesome responsibility to live in the light (see Luke 12:47-48, 2 Pet 1:19). We must be prepared to let God shape our understanding of truth, so that we do not view life with rose-tinted spectacles, having wrong views of God and other issues which, if left uncorrected, may lead us astray, but allowing God’s word to shape us, lead us and direct us into all truth. As we rejoice in the coming of Jesus, the Light, let us rejoice and live in the light that He has given and let us continually walk in and towards the light of the Lord.

December has always been a busy month in my family for birthdays. My uncle’s birthday was 19^th December; my mother’s 23^rd December and my father’s 24^th December. When my son and daughter-in-law announced their pregnancy with a due date in December, I felt as though this was quite fitting as a family tradition!

The due date was 21^st December and my daughter-in-law, with the confidence of youth, was sure the baby would come before Christmas and she would be home to celebrate Christmas as usual. I was less confident, knowing that due dates are not definite predictors (I’d listened to the ‘More or Less’ programme about this, which confirmed that only 4% of births are actually on the due date, you see!) Sure enough, as time went on, it became clear that the baby would not be here on 21^st December and Stacey was booked in on 23^rd December in the afternoon to be induced.

So now we were left with a whole host of ‘significant’ family dates on which my granddaughter could be born, with many friends hoping for a Christmas Day birth! As it turned out, Esther waited until the evening that Christmas Eve to arrive, quite the longest 24-hour period I’ve known in a long while! We celebrated my Dad’s birthday in the usual way, but no one’s mind was really on his birthday that year as we waited for news of the newest Turner arrival.

Eccl 3:1 reminds us that there is a time for everything and a season for every activity under the sun. Gal 4:4-5 tells us ‘But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship.’ There are times and seasons for birth and for death; Ps 31:15 confidently asserts ‘my times are in Your hands’. We may not know what lies ahead this Christmas and throughout 2018, but we can rest in the fact that God does know and will be with us throughout. All life cycles are in His hands.

It might seem odd to be talking about life after death as we draw closer to Christmas, the time when we celebrate new life and birth, but the truth remains for humans that death is the one certain thing about life. We may not know when death will come, but we cannot avoid our mortality, pretending we will never die.

The good news of the gospel is that death does not have to have the last word. Jesus Christ died for our sins, but was raised to life for our justification (Rom 4:25) and the fact that He died as a sacrifice for our sins means all who put their trust in Him can experience everlasting life (John 3:16). We have a hope that goes beyond life on this earth, a hope of life beyond death (see 1 Cor 15:16-20, 35-58).

Christmas is not just about birth. In order to truly appreciate Christmas, we have to look into the purpose of Christ’s advent and see beyond the helpless baby to the Saviour who would die for the sins of the world and be raised to life again on the third day as confirmation of God’s acceptance of this sinless sacrifice. As we look from the cradle to Calvary, we see that there is more to life than birth and more to life than death, though birth and death are inextricably connected to life. For many people, Christmas is a painful reminder of loss and can be extremely difficult to bear, but the Christian gospel offers hope of life after death, life that cannot be extinguished by the mortality of the body. We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure (Heb 6:19), sustaining us through the pain of bereavement and all insecurity about the future.

It seems incredible that it is 8 months since we were in India visiting Fredrick and Reeba, but it has been wonderful to receive news from the Tailoring Programme this week. Reeba testifies to the impact of this programme in rescuing women from despair. Lakshmi, a 23 year old widow from a Hindu family, had two children and was rejected by her own family, relatives and neighbours when her husband died due to a heart disease. She felt that suicide was the only option available to her, but through the tailoring programme found hope and joy. SHe now lives with her in-laws and although she is still struggling to pay off debts from her husband’s medical and funeral expenses, she is now looking forward to graduating in January 2018 and building a new life.

90% of the women who complete this programme find jobs in a garment factory with the rest starting tailoring businesses in their homes.The goal of the programme is to see the community totally transformed and self-sufficient, with poverty eradicated and dignity restored. One such example is Mrs Sathya who now makes 8000 rupees a month in a garment factory, three times more than she had previously been able to earn.

Reeba asks for prayer for the women in the tailoring classes. 60 additional sewing machines are needed by the third week in January and an interlock machine is also needed for further training.The needs are great, but she is confident God will supply all their needs.

The ladies who graduated in July 2017: