January 2025

Dear Friends

And so, the great celebrations of Christmas come to an end and life returns to a more ordinary, everyday, measure and pace. Ordinary and every day is good. We need it. In the Church's calendar ordinary time, marked by the colour green, is all those times between the great festivals and celebrations like Christmas, Easter and Pentecost and ordinary time is to be treasured too. It's when we get down to the everyday basics of our lives such as work, family and all those jobs on our to do lists, some good, positive and energising and some tedious, unwelcome but necessary.

One of the great things about Christianity is that God has revealed himself to us, not only as the God of the spectacular and momentous, but of the very ordinary too. One of the sparkling truths we celebrate at Christmas is "And the Word became flesh and lived among us" (John 1:14). God took an ordinary human body and lived for most of his life on earth a very ordinary human existence. He was the eldest brother in his household, living a simple 1st Century Palestinian life, working as a carpenter. For thirty years he lived the ordinary, everyday measure and pace of life.

Here in the ordinary our lives are most especially nurtured and grounded. The good news is that God has promised to be with us always on the mountain tops and in the valleys, in the great moments of celebration and in the ordinary every day. "And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age" (Matt 28:45). Then even the ordinary can be shot through with significance and glory. He is with us always and our ordinary lives can become places of fellowship with God, rooted in prayer, places of worship and service of Him.

Revd, Steve Paynter
Stevedpaynter@gmail.com
01793 296870

A Prayer:
All your works praise you, O Lord,
and we would add our voices to their praise.
For we are your workmanship,
created in your image,
created for your glory,
created to serve your Kingdom.
Fulfil in us and through us, Lord God,
the purposes of your love,
and help us in our daily lives
to reflect more of your likeness;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.