When should you put up/take down the tree?

I put my Christmas tree up on December 5th. You have to slot all the little colour coded branches into the little numbered slots which don't correspond to the colours at all. It's a painstaking business even before you start decorating it.
Because my tree goes in the corner of the room I usually don't add the branches round the back, instead I put them between the branches already fixed in place at the front in order to give the tree some fullness. Occasionally I fasten these with parcel ties but when I get fed up I just balance them. I add the lights next and use a net because it's easier. and remember that if you are using a light net, you needed to put the tinsel on first. Finally I hang baubles and scented angels who no longer smell. This year having completed my task some two and a half hours after beginning it, I got the vacuum cleaner out to hoover up the hundreds of green bits which had dropped from the synthetic tree. It's quite a good vacuum cleaner so when I ran over the wire to the lights, it sucked it up and began wrapping it round the rotating brushes. I tried to stamp on the off lever but only managed to hit the handle release and lie the hoover flat on the floor where it continued to wrap the wire round its spinning brushes. By the time I had managed to stand on the off switch, the tree was no longer up and the lights were no longer on.
It made me reflect on how much Christmas sucks people's resources and topples their ideals. 
It's not what's supposed to happen at Christmas but if you get the true meaning all tangled up in the whirr and noise of trying to keep things organised, I'm afraid it's a likely consequence. 
The first Christmas wasn't tidy. There was no room to stay in and no cot to sleep in. The floor was probably a mess and quite likely worse things than plastic green bits were strewn across it. But the thing about Christmas is that light came down. Not by accident, but very deliberately. Jesus is the light of the world, he came down to earth to untangle the mess we're in. I love Christmas even when I take my tree down as soon as I've put it up. I know the light of the world has shone in my heart and it means I understand the happiness of Christmas every day of the year.

Glory to God in the highest key known to man.

I was at a wonderful Christmas celebration today.  We sang carols. One of the difficulties with carols is that they were written when people could reach top F without any effort. Nowadays, most popular songs have a range of four lines of lyrics spread across six notes, none of them above top D, so when people are at a carol service and 'O Holy Night' is chosen they begin confidently because it starts well within their range. You can see them beginning to get a bit nervous at "Fall on your knees O hear the angel voices" and then they suddenly realise that they'll never make "O night divine"  and it's too late to drop an octave and be on the safe side. As if that wasn't bad enough, there's another "divine" coming which is possibly outside of the range of most angel voices never mind human ones. I'm not sure why, when we have capos, bar chords and transpose buttons we still insist on sticking with the key of E flat for 'O Holy Night'. The whole point of Christmas is that God came down to where we are because we couldn't reach Him where he is. God transposed himself so we could be in harmony with him. I wish you a very happy Christmas and a renewed understanding of what it really means.

The Angels' Angle

We got sent to some shepherds, dirty filthy shepherds who’d trodden in sheep muck so many times their feet were green. Greasy hair, soft hands - soft from the lanolin in the wool. They weren’t a bad bunch, quite caring in their way.
We’d seen them go out in the dead of night to look for one measley sheep who’d struggled his way through the railings and got himself stuck in some bramble bush.
Thinking about it, I suppose it was just like God to tell them about Jesus.
They had a soft spot for anything new born, and the determination to nurse it through to health if it was at all possible.
It was God’s plan for all mankind. to give them new birth. God’s plan too, that they would grow and mature.
But people are so like sheep. They want their own way, want to go where they choose even though the consequences could be devastating.
Why don’t people grow up? What is it with human nature that thinks it knows better than God?
The shepherds went to see the baby. Little did they know he was the Good Shepherd, the one who could restore their souls and lead them in paths of righteousness. The one who, even in the valley of the shadow of death could give them the assurance that they did not need to fear evil.
Death’s evil all right, and it’s a dark, deep valley. But for anyone who has trusted the leading of the Good shepherd, there’s no fear.
We told those shepherds to “fear not”- we meant “don’t be scared of us”, but God meant more than that.
God meant you to hear the message that the Saviour was born for you, and if you make your mind up to go and find him and worship Him, you wont ever need to be afraid of anything again. Not even death.

Why are lights that flash off and on and off in random epilepsy inducing sequences, called fairy lights?

Who ever saw a fairy using lights? Come to that who ever saw a fairy?

Angels - I can vouch for there being angels, but fairies?

Warmest greetings? Not sure what they are. I had mulled berry non alcoholic punch the other day, it was tepid and horrible. Maybe that was a warmest greeting - if so you can keep it.

Is it just when you get older that you become disappointed in things because they don't live up to your expectations or memories? One thing that lives up to both my expectations and memories, is the Christmas story.  I have warmest memories about my first part in a Christmas play when I was six. I had the inauspicious line "Come children." I delivered it in my best Manchester accent. I was in Lewisham, South East London at the time and it brought the house down.

The first Christmas brought joy to shepherds and angels and wise men and people of the royal line who had almost forgotten their genealogy.

This Christmas brings joy to me. Because Jesus came, I have rediscovered my royal lineage. I was designed to be the child of a king, a child of God, and I have discovered that I feature on the royal role call because Jesus came to earth and died to forgive me of the things that might have had me crossed off the list.

There were no flashing lights and no particular warm feelings inside. I believed in Jesus. I said I was sorry for my sin, I found God and I discovered life. May I recommend the truth of the Christmas story for lighting up your Christmas.

Glory to God in the highest key possible

I was at a wonderful Christmas celebration today. The singers were splendid, the musicians were magnificent, the stories of changed lives were inspiring, the talkers were terrific, the media was marvelous, the carols were class. 
It was unfortunate that whilst we sang "Once in Royal David's City" somebody's car blocked the working men's club entrance. It resulted in the screen displaying the words, "And he leads his children on...to the back of the hall"
I love most of the carols. My favourite is "Hark the Herald Angels Sing." People sing it every Christmas, "Veiled in flesh the godhead see, hail the incarnate deity, pleased as man with man to dwell, Jesus our Emmanuel. Mild he lays his glory by, born that man no more may die, born to raise the sons of earth, born to give them second birth." So much truth in so few lines. I always sing it too loud. People in front of me turn round and stare at me in embarrassed amazement. 
The only trouble with carols is that they were written when people could reach top F without any effort. Nowadays, most popular songs have a range of four lines of lyrics spread across six notes, none of them above top D, so if anyone has to sing a carol they give up as soon as it approaches top E. I'm not sure why, when we have capos, bar chords and transpose buttons we still insist on sticking with the key of E flat for 'O Holy Night'. 
The whole point of Christmas is that God came down to where we are because we couldn't reach Him where he is. God transposed himself so we could be in harmony with him. I wish you a very happy Christmas and a renewed understanding of what it really means.

Signing for the deaf

Today I read  about the man who 'signed' for Nelson Mandela's memorial service. I know it's a serious matter but I found it very funny. Apparently, angels in the auditorium put him off but he didn't dare stop in case he was shot. I suppose angels would put you off a bit. In the Christmas story the angels pointed the shepherds to a sign, "This will be a sign unto you, you will find the baby wrapped in swaddling bands and lying in a manger." It was difficult to misinterpret that sign. God has no problem being specific.
A baby in a cow's feeding trough is not something you see every day. Swaddling bands were probably a device to stop babies rolling about too much and waking themselves up, so if you're sleeping in a trough  they would be a good idea.The shepherds went and found exactly the right baby and when they left the stable they were glorifying God, which is what meeting Jesus should make you do. 
When Thamsanqa waved his arms about the message wasn't clear.
When God came to earth the message was clear -   "Fear not, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord."