I think it must be getting near Christmas

 In the space of a few days so much has been happening it must mean something important is about to take place.

Saturday saw a gathering of Iona Associates and the Thames Valley Iona Family Group in Oxford, where  I led an Advent gathering with Iona style worship, conversation, prayer writing and renewal of friendships. It's always a joy to be part of such groups due to the open nature of people to be prepared to think outside the box. 

After a full day it was time for the strictly come dancing final and it was so good to see Chris McCausland win with Diane. But you know when the strictly season is over its nearly.......

Then onto Sunday and with two daughters present (its becoming a bit of a new tradition) we were able to enjoy listening to the Milltown Singers where Jill/mum is part of the choir. After all those years of going to see our children in choirs etc it's now their turn to do the watching.







The choir was excellent with over 100 in the choir.







Then it was the weekly run to London to be ready to undertake our grandparent duties.

Just for once we were able to go and watch our eldest granddaughter in her class production as it was happening on a Monday for a change. She clearly was pleased to see us there, and you could tell she would really have liked to be a do a bit of dancing. Her twin brother and sister sat really well taking it all in.



Then with one day break on we went to a wonderful performance of 'The Fleece Force' where another grandson in reception was a part of the cast. It was a real community event being a small village school.






It still seems strange to now be sitting in concerts and school performances which don't involve our daughters or me then having to get up to do a talk. 

It's amazing how much gets packed in during these advent days before Christmas day arrives. For me theres just a Christingle to lead on Christmas eve and then suddenly it will all be over. All that looking ahead to something that has already occurred. It can of course distract us from what we really need to be doing everyday, which is walking in the footsteps of the one who called us to follow. But then we quite like to be distracted as it avoids having to make the difficult choices of living the life of Christ's Love now.

So just a thought to ponder among all this joyful and fun busyness 

Words from Richard Rohr - ‘The Universal Christ’

Christ is God, and Jesus is the Christ’s historical manifestation in time.


Jesus is a Third someone, not just God and not just man, but God and human together. 









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