Today we reach the end of our Advent musings for 2022 and are just hours away from celebrating Christmas in 2022. Christmas has always been a special time of year for me, inextricably linked to birthdays, for my uncle, mother, father and granddaughter all had or have birthdays in this Christmas week. My father, whose birthday was on Christmas Eve, was born a month early and always said it was because he couldn’t wait for Christmas! The joy of celebrating birthdays and Christmas has been a part of my life always; when my granddaughter was also born on Christmas Eve, the tradition was continued. I will be spending today celebrating with her.

Birthdays are times of celebration precisely because life is precious. Each of us is precious to God, known by Him and loved by Him (see Psalm 139 for a reminder that God made us and knows us inside out.) These truths are the foundation of joy. People matter so much to God that He sent His only Son to save us. (John 3:16) Even if you have no other reason to celebrate, no other reason for joy, this truth is reason to rejoice today and throughout the rest of our lives. God made you special and loves you so much He sent His Son to bring you back into a relationship with Him.

New life brings responsibility and financial burdens. In 2021 in the UK, the basic cost of raising a child until the age of 18 was £76,167. When additional costs, such as housing and childcare, are added, we get the total cost of £160,692. It can be daunting becoming a parent for many reasons!

But still there is joy when we celebrate the birth of a baby. At our Parent & Toddler group, we have had the joy of welcoming new babies this year; my own family is eagerly anticipating the arrival of another child next year. New life should always bring joy because we are celebrating the very miracle of life itself.

The angels told the shepherds, ‘Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.’ (Luke 2:10-11) The good news they proclaimed was bound up in the person and birth of Jesus Christ. Because He was born on earth, hope and peace could come to humanity. He was not just a helpless baby; He was the Saviour, the Messiah, the Lord.

We may not know what our children will become, but we are privileged to know what became of the baby whose arrival we celebrate at Christmas. We have eternal life because of His life, death and resurrection, and therefore we have ‘inexpressible and glorious joy’ (1 Peter 1:8), no matter what.

Apologies for the delay in posting these photos from our carol service on Sunday. We’re so proud of the children who sang the songs ‘Boogie-woogie Angels’ and ‘Midnight’ and ‘Away In A Manger’ and danced their hearts out. We pray these children will grow up fully aware of the real meaning of Christmas and will look back with fondness on such celebrations!

For some people, Christmas is not a time of joy. It’s a painful reminder of loss: family and friends who have passed away and are no longer with us, financial difficulties which make the expected celebrations simply impossible, broken relationships and tensions which have to be navigated, meaning each day feels like walking on eggshells, with loneliness and a sense of failure the predominant emotions. The expectation of joy does not always match the reality of our actual lives, and this is why this time of year can be so painful for many.

This is why it is so important to read the Biblical account of the first Christmas, rather than basing our beliefs on the sanitised cartoon version we find in the media. Mary and Joseph were not at home; they were in a large town, without friends and family, without adequate accommodation. They experienced the joy of new life in less-than-ideal circumstances and before long were forced to flee to Egypt as refugees because Herod was intent on killing their son. Historians believe that Jesus spent the first three-and-a-half years of his life in Egypt as a refugee. There was no benefits’ system there; Joseph would have the anxiety of finding work to support his family in a foreign country. Just like today, life was difficult for them.

Yet in the midst of these difficulties, pressing in on their everyday lives, there was the joy of knowing God. God spoke to Joseph in dreams, warning him of the difficulties and then reassuring him it was safe to return home. (Matthew 2:13-23) God was still there with them, even in the midst of difficulties. He is still here with us, even in the midst of our difficulties. Joy can co-exist alongside difficulties and trials, because God is with us.

The Christmas carol speaks of ‘tidings of comfort and joy’ (‘God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen’) and these two things are often linked in the Bible. God promised through Jeremiah, ‘I will give them comfort and joy instead of sorrow’ (Jer 31:13), and Isaiah called us to rejoice precisely because of God’s comfort: ‘Shout for joy, you heavens; rejoice, you earth; burst into song, you mountains! For the Lord comforts his people and will have compassion on his afflicted ones.’ (Is 49:13) Later, Isaiah says, ‘The Lord will surely comfort Zion and will look with compassion on all her ruins; he will make her deserts like Eden, her wastelands like the garden of the Lord. Joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the sound of singing.’ (Is 51:3)

We can rejoice no matter what because of the comfort and consolation God provides for us. Sometimes this comes through other people (see 2 Cor 1:2-11); sometimes it comes through circumstances; sometimes it comes through God’s word. It’s significant that joy is often the response to what God does in our lives. The shepherds and Magi, Simeon and Anna, all experienced joy because they met Jesus. We have the privilege of meeting Him each day and can therefore receive both comfort and joy from Him.

I was fortunate to learn music at school. Starting with the recorder and going on to the flute, I learned to play instruments and read music from a young age. Music theory is the practical application of turning twelve notes into an endless variety of melodies in such a way that anyone, anywhere, can then learn to play them. As a child, it seemed boring at times to learn all these technical words and what they meant, but as with reading words, once the basics are mastered, an endless world of imagination becomes accessible to all. I don’t regret learning the language of music any more than I regret learning to read. Music and reading are for me among the greatest pleasures of life.

All this is preamble to explaining that a major or minor scale has names for each note based on the position of that note to the key note (the tonic.) The beauty of doing things this way is that these names apply to any key you choose; once you know these names, you can work in any key at all. It’s a musical shorthand in the same way that learning phonic patterns can help you to read unfamiliar words.

If we give the 7 different notes in a scale numbers, 1 is the tonic, 2 is the supertonic, 3 the mediant, 4 the subdominant, 5 the dominant, 6 the submediant and 7 the subtonic (in the natural minor scale) or leading note (in the major scale.)

The tonic sandwiches the notes of the scale at both ends, rather like the bread in a sandwich holds the filling in place. It gives us both a beginning and an ending. It’s the same note at different pitches, holding all things together.

Jesus is the ‘tonic’ of the scale of life.Colossians 1:17 says that ‘he is before all things and in him all things hold together.’

Many of us try to live life randomly, plonking notes together like the child banging the notes at the piano. The resultant noise could not be called music. It sounds disconnected, discordant and jarring.

We need Christ to be the tonic to our tune, the One who holds all things together, who makes sense of the apparent randomness of life and whose melody can be heard in the everyday happenings of our lives.

In non-musical vocabulary, a tonic (other than a drink advertised widely by Schweppes which goes well with gin!) Is a medicinal substance taken to give a feeling of vigour or well-being: a stimulant or restorative, a ‘pick-me-up.’ Christ is this kind of tonic to us too. He restores our souls. (Ps 23:3) He reinvigorates us, pouring His life into us.

So let Jesus be your tonic today, holding you together, giving you the strength and vigour that you need.