Whatever your experience, I do hope it is by in large a positive one. We all do so much it seems to recreate the magic of Christmases long gone, and while there's nothing wrong with that, we still can be left feeling hollow or wanting more (well, not more turkey that's for sure)! Perhaps that's why we pick out our holidays straight after Christmas, or head straight for the shops to fill that void. 

Of course, that void can only be filled fully and forever by God himself - who created each one of us with a God-shaped-hole. That's because he WANTS us to feel dissatisfied ultimately with all the peripheries – because he WANTS us to search for him! He created us for the sole purpose of having a relationship with him - not to be his servants, playthings or anything else – just like I had my 2 children because I wanted to have children to love & who’d love me back.

I recently penned and performed our Christmas play 'The Xmas Factor'. Various auditionees (including Santa and a Hell's Angel choirboy amongst others!) attempted to persuade the judges (the 3 wise men!) that they represented the quintessential Christmas, but of course none of them had that Xmas factor! It took our pastor Ian to point out that the answer was all in the X - it was the wrong way up. If you just turned the X slightly it revealed a cross - the cross of Jesus - the real meaning of Christmas.

Jesus himself said, ‘I am the Way, the Truth and the Life, no-one comes to the Father except by me.’ So for the rest of this festive season, the next and all that lies between – if you want lasting peace and fulfilment – you’ll find it in God through the cross of Jesus!