Advent calendar 2020

Advent 25 - Wednesday 23rd December 2020
By Fred Coutts

Sunday School Nativity play, Buckie North Church 1980

Christmas is coming

We have been counting the days of this Advent season as people walking in darkness, amid confusion, worry and fear. Each day seems to bring a new worry.  Now Christmas Day is within sight when the light shines on the child born for us and we hear the reassuring words: “I am with you always!”

Isaiah 9: 2, 6
The people walking in darkness
    have seen a great light;
on those living in the land of deep darkness
    a light has dawned.
For to us a child is born,
    to us a son is given,
    and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
    Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God,
    Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Keeping Christmas
We won't have a Christmas this year, you say
For now the children have all gone away;
And the house is so lonely, so quiet and so bare
We couldn't have a Christmas that they didn't share.
 
We won't have a Christmas this year, you sigh,
For Christmas means things that money must buy.
Misfortunes and illness have robbed us we fear
Of the things that we'd need to make Christmas this year.
 
We won't have a Christmas this year you weep,
For a loved one is gone, and our grief is too deep;
It will be a long time before our hearts heal,
And the spirit of Christmas again we can feel.
 
But if you lose Christmas when troubles befall,
You never have really had Christmas at all.
For once you have had it, it cannot depart
When you learn that true Christmas is Christ in your heart.

Verna S Teeuwissen (1911-2004)

Prayer

God beside us,
hear our prayer as Christmas draws close,
for ourselves and for our families.
Some live with painful thoughts and memories.
Some live in fear and confusion.
We ask for strength for today,
courage for tomorrow
and peace for the past.
We put our trust in
The Wonderful Counsellor,
The Mighty God,   
The Everlasting Father,
The Prince of Peace.
Amen

Other days in the Advent Calendar