4 parcels

I am preaching on Sunday (second time this year!) and am looking forward to it. Maybe I'll post some of my offering but I was wondering if anything would happen in my week to help make a point. And it did. Last week on Thursday I received a parcel, followed by another on Friday and two on Saturday. Addressed to 'The Quickes' their senders were anonymous in Amazon blurb. Not plain oblong boxes but intriguing assorted sizes and shapes.   

And then came the text. A friend said they had sent us a box with an amaryllis.  She commented that it would look like a straight forward amaryllis plant box! I checked and found that it had arrived on Thursday addressed to 'the Quickes'. Then, with apology, she explained that she had mistakenly sent three other further packages to my address NOT intended for me. 'My mistake,' she said, 'I'll come round and collect them.'  They look good piled up in the hall but they're not for me. To top it off, yesterday a post van drove up outside. 'For you' said the postman, holding a very large box.   As I grappled the gift I checked the address and saw it was the right road but another number. And a completely different name. For commercial savvy UK readers  - did the postman need to go to Specsavers?)

All this adds up as a lightweight reminder of the sheer wonder that the greatest gift in the world - Christ the Saviour - is born to us. Its addressed properly, reaching the right people, like the shepherds who hear 'Today, a Saviour has been born TO YOU (Luke 2:11). This is part of the public announcement in the fields outside Bethlehem which I shall preach on next Sunday. But the specific personal words to these shepherds emphasize ground-breaking truth; the real God works in ordinary places with ordinary people so that no one misses out.  To hear from God directly yourself is the miracle of his grace. No fudged address and misdirected message. TO YOU.

We are closing in on Christmas and I wish you joy as you revel in specific personal words TO YOU IS BORN A SAVIOUR. HE IS CHRIST THE LORD.  He's come for each of us, in ordinary places as ordinary people so that no one misses out.