Both Gill and I are so grateful to be part of God’s family with you!

Each one of us is so valuable to the family, to God the Father, let’s face it, He paid the highest price ever paid for you and me! How valuable you are! Please don’t think of yourself as insignificant…. God doesn’t!

Please don’t think that who you are or what you do for God is insignificant…. God doesn’t!

Mother Teresa of Calcutta once said, “We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But if that drop was not in the ocean, I think the ocean would be less because of that missing drop.”

You are God’s workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. (Ephesians 2:10) Some versions say we are God’s masterpiece!... Never underestimate yourself when serving God, bringing glory to him, even in small ways.

For us to understand the reason for Christmas, we need to understand the nature of God himself. Christmas as we know is a time of giving and receiving. Think back to the first Christmas, to the birth of Jesus and we see this in plain sight ….. God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, (Jn3:16) He gave Him to a world so in need of being saved, unable to save itself. Love as we know is not self-seeking (1Cor13) in other words it is ‘otherseeking’, in other words it is giving out…..

The nature of God! We see the loving/giving nature of God so wonderfully expressed in every part of the first Christmas account …

 God gave Mary a message through Gabriel, He gave her favour, He gave her peace instead of fear!

 God gave into Mary’s womb Jesus by the creative power of the Holy Spirit.

 God gave Elizabeth a child, He gave them both joy!

 God gave Joseph, Mary’s husband to be, an angel dream telling him not to be afraid to marry Mary. (In essence He also gave Joseph peace instead of fear and gave him confidence to marry the one he loved even though people might now question the circumstances).

 God gave Jesus his name!

 God gave meaning and purpose to Jesus’ life on earth, “..Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” (In doing so God gave hope!)

 God gave the fulfilment of his word, “All this took place to fulfil what the Lord had said through the prophet: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel (which means God with us).”

 In fulfilling His word God gave ongoing reason to trust him, He gave faithfulness.

 Joseph gave himself to Mary, he gave her a home, he gave her a husband, he took what would have been her ‘shame’ and gave her respect, (no small thing in those days and in the circumstances).

 God gave the humble shepherds a message of the birth of Jesus thus signifying that this king is king of the humble ordinary people, giving hope that even the least are invited into God’s presence!

Love from Martyn & Gill Rowe