My Dear Friends,

As Christmas gets closer by the day, I imagine that some of you, like myself, will be struggling with the usual question of gift ideas, `What can I possibly get for great aunt Maud this year - she seems to have everything already?' You know the sort of thing.

Well, ponder no longer. You will find lots of suggestions in an American magazine that I read about in my newspaper a day or so ago. For example, for someone who really does have everything, why not buy him or her their very own personal cinema, completely built and fitted out with all the latest equipment and at the knockdown price of only £800,000? (Yes, really!). Great aunt Maud will obviously have to settle for a box of chocolates again I can see!

Today, it seems that because we possess so much and equally, expect so much, the giving and receiving of gifts is in danger of becoming simply a cost driven routine - yet it means so little. It is then that we lose any sense of gratitude for what is given and we are disappointed that the gift is, perhaps, not up to our expectation.

The Bible though has other values and looks at things in a somewhat different way. So we find, for instance, Jesus telling a story about a lost coin and a woman's joy at finding it again (Luke 15: 8-10). To the woman, that single coin was of immeasurable worth and her gratitude reflects that aspect.

At Christmas, we experience giving of an altogether different worth for God himself gives His only Son to a needy and troubled world. `This' said God later, `is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.' The eternal God takes great joy in giving the world His Son that through Him we might know the joy of love and salvation.

But how shall we view this exceptional gift? As one other among so many that we have already put to one side as being of little consequence? Shall we too voice our disapproval as Israel did and say that it is not quite what we expected?

Christmas is all about the gift of God's love to a lost world. It is not about tinsel and glitter and things that within a week or so will be packed up in a box to await another year. God's gift is for now and always, it lasts and will endure and neither will it lose its glory. As such it needs a heartfelt response, our response, our gratitude for it is something that we could never obtain for ourselves and neither is it found in any rich man's catalogue of expensive gifts.

We show our gratitude by responding in thankfulness to a generous God and then letting the love that He shows to us find its way to others as we share with them what God has given to us. So can I suggest, as a beginning, that we meet together for just 45 minutes on Christmas morning at 10.30 am to thank God for His great gift?