Spot on!’ We were journeying to visit friends who had moved to a new house in a small village in an area which we did not know. They had very helpfully sent us a letter giving us clear and copious directions as to how we could reach their village and where we could find their new house. Before we set out from home we looked at our maps, located their village and worked out our route and believed that we would have no trouble in finding our way to their home.
After a three hour journey we knew we were in the right county and in the right locality of their new home. However, we just did not seem able to find our way to their house. We looked at sign posts as we drove along, we stopped to ask other people as we passed their homes but we still ended up lost. So there was nothing for it but to use the mobile phone to call our friends to ask for help! They told us that we were not far away and it was quite easy to find them and gave us some more helpful instructions. But it was still no good. After further driving around looking for the markers they had given us, we still couldn’t find our way to their home and had to resort to calling them once again.
Their response this time was wonderful. They told us we were almost home and rather than give us more directions which we might misunderstand my friend said, ‘Stay where you are. I’ll come and find you!’ Minutes later we saw him walking down the lane to meet us and to show us the way to his home. What a relief it was to sit down with our friends in their home and to enjoy a cup of tea. This is the real essence of Christmas. All of us are on a journey towards the home of the greatest Friend anyone could have – our Father God. The road to His home has many twists and turns, hills and valleys, diversions and delays. We have a map to follow in the Bible and plenty of other people who give us friendly advice to help us on our way. But many of us still find it difficult to find our way home. This has been true across the years and across the centuries.
But our great Friend, did not leave us to go round in circles, to be lost and to despair. Christmas reminds us that God, two thousand years before, echoed the words of my friend. He said, ‘Stay where you are. I’ll come and find you.’ God became Immanuel, God with us, when He sent His Son into the world as a baby in
Bethlehem to meet us where we are and through His redeeming, sacrificial life and love to bring us safely home to His Father’s house. ‘He became what we are that He might make us what He is.’ If we accept we are lost and ask Him for help we can depend on Him to find us and to bring us safely home. Rev J Brian Curtis. Retired Minister. Broadstairs.
