true grit

We had the P7s here from the local school this morning. The bulk of the morning anyway.

All 76 of them, plus their teachers, plus some 'crowd-control' helpers the teachers had brought along too. Not that you'd have guessed there were that many children along, they were that well behaved and engaged with the whole thing so well.

We work through something of what Christmas is really about with them all. In some ways the whole thing gets boiled right down to the five simple pictures they have in the centre-page spread of the work-books we give to them all.

Mary and Joseph go to Bethlehem to register.

There's no room at the inn for them when the baby Jesus is born.

Shepherds out on the fields around Bethlehem are the first to hear the news.

In response to the angelic message, they come to see for themselves.

Wise men from a distant land also come to bring their gifts to the new King who's been born.

The children seemed to enjoy it all. The teachers certainly did: they had a demanding morning undergoing a customer-research, coffee-sampling exercise, which they're prepared to do again come Easter time!

We pray that the message gets home. Christmas isn't complicated. Remove the 'fluff' and it's a simple, stunning message of the most audacious thing God ever set in motion.

And we can get to be part of the action, too!

A quick tidy-up once they're gone, then off to the school myself - this time for the last Scripture Union group of the term.

Our usual venue has been taken. It's being used by the staff for their annual Christmas lunch today. It's getting to be a tough day for these P7 teachers. Coffee all morning, then a Christmas lunch!

We find another venue, in the computer room. The children are loud and boisterous once again - they generally are over lunch, it's a chance for them all to be letting off steam. But they seem to enjoy the time and they keep coming back for more.

Today I'm trying to help them put Jesus on the map of all their lives. They need to know the basic facts.

Where was he born? Where did Jesus grow up?

Real places on the real map of the world in which they live, close to places like Turkey and Cyprus where some have been on holiday.

Bethlehem, Nazareth, Jerusalem: these are all real places. Places you can visit still today.

Jesus is for real. It's not a made up story.

The afternoon is different.

Real people again, coping with the sometimes harsh realities of this very real and in-urgent-need-of-major-repair contemporary world.

Only a Jesus who's definitely for real is going to be any good.

Made-up stories are no use at all for folk like this who are coping with illness and death and bereavement, and with breakdowns of health or the break-up of homes, the disruption of family life.

I'm walking back home later on and a car is skidding all over the place. Stuck in a rut, and unable to move either forward or back.

I stop to give the lady a hand. In part it's a case of instruction - explaining how to handle the car and what I need her to do: and in part it's a case of a hands-on approach as I give her the push which she needs (well, not her so much as her car, you'll undestand!).

It's another little cameo, portraying what the gospel is about. Our world is now skidding all over the place. People are stuck in a rut. They feel they're not going anywhere, and all their best efforts are only making it worse.

Jesus comes to rescue us. A real Jesus. Who knows his stuff, because he's been here himself and he knows the course well. And who's able to get us moving once again, and going somewhere purposeful in life.

I spend my life explaining gospel principles: and then, when it comes to applying those basic principles, I'm seeking, too, to help the folk I'm pastoring to work them through and work them out, and thus to help them get back on the highway of God's purpose for their lives.

True grit, I guess.