burning candles

I know it says Wednesday. 24th December. As in Christmas Eve.

Which is worrying. Since I'm still working my Tuesday just now!

It's that sort of time of year.

The nights are on the short side. And the days get rather stretched.

Christmas week is generally short enough at the best of times, depending on the day of the week on which Christmas Day itself happens to fall. You kind of 'lose' a day anyway, what with Christmas Day being taken as a holiday.

And at the very same time as you're 'losing' a day, you're also gaining a good few extra services, all of which clamour for good and thorough preparation. And before you know it, another Sunday is knocking at the door.

And with yesterday also effectively spoken for with all that was involved with Alex's funeral, there's a lot that's needing to be crammed into just a couple of fleeting days.

So today's been a day of hard graft in the main, applying myself to the various tasks there are in leading the people in worship at this really festive time, and in bringing God's word to a whole range of people whose needs and situations are about as diverse as they come.

Not easy. A lot of it has to be visual as well. At least, to my mind it does.

See in yonder manger low... goes the hymn. And that's the sort of emphasis the Scriptures bring as well.

When the shepherds got over their shock and started chatting the angels' visit through with one another, they concluded that they do well to go and 'see thing that has hapened.'

People need to see it for themselves.

There was an older guy as well who comes into the Christmas story, a guy called Simeon. And even he, the older generation, felt a good deal better, more at peace, once he'd actually seen the gift God had given.

And today's generation are even more attuned to that means of knowledge. So I'm prepared to give a good deal of time to working at 'visual impact'. Enabling people to see what the Lord is on about.

'Powerpoint', basically, in the language of today.

Building up the images takes time, as well as creativity. And I'm happy to offer both. It just means that the candles - which are pretty visual images themselves, of course - those candles get burned at both ends!