To talk about Christmas as ‘God’s Great Rescue Plan’ begs the question, ‘What’s the danger? What do we need rescuing from?’ Just as most of us in our area live quite comfortable lives, we can be the same spiritually, not aware of any danger or peril at all.

Recent floods. however, shook us up and made many of us think again: it was bizarre hearing familiar place names like Meadowhall, Bentley and Fishlake make the national news as we experienced heavy rain on 7th November which causes much localised flooding, necessitating the emergency services having to rescue many people from cars or homes. For many, the danger was all too real and the consequences devastating. South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue said that they had taken more than 2409 emergency calls on 7^th November and carried out around 219 rescues, many of them directly related to the flooding.

Spiritually, we are all in need of rescue, for all have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory (Rom 3:23) and there is no one righteous, not even one. (Rom 3:10) God sent Jesus to be our rescuer; even His name tells us this, for it means ‘he shall save his people from their sins.’ (Matt 1:21) The baby in the manger at Bethlehem may look an unlikely rescuer, but He is both fully human and fully God (Mary conceived when the Holy Spirit came upon her) and could therefore be the sinless sacrifice for sin.

God’s method of rescue seems odd to us, for Jesus ended up nailed to a cross, suffering humiliation and shame. A dead rescuer doesn ‘t sound like much of a plan, but the story doesn’t end in the stable or even on the cross. God’s great rescue plan included resurrection: the triumph of Jesus over death and the proof that His sacrifice was accepted by God. Jesus now lives for ever, and because of this, we too can have eternal life.

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…