Dear Everybody,

We're probably all thinking it, especially if we're over a certain age - "It CAN'T be that time of year already?!

Well... yes... it is - Christmas is just round the corner again and, in the time-honoured words of the game 'Hide and Seek', it'll be "coming... ready or not".

Churches are always busy places around Christmas, and rightly so.
In Cumbernauld Old we have two slightly 'different' services in December, as well as the more normal Christmas Eve or Christmas Day ones. First, sort of mid-way through the month, is "Toddlers' Praise", one of four in the year (the others are at Easter, in the Summer, and for Harvest). I love Toddlers' Praise services: they never start on time - someone's always been held up by having to change a nappy (too much information!)... and then the fun begins. Songs, a childlike prayer, a story about Jesus and his love, and then lots of glue, and felt pens, making a masterpiece to remind us Jesus loves us, LOTS. The service is always chaotic and it's always FUN. Oh! And there's chocolate to go home with... I love Toddlers' Praise, especially the Christmas one!

Nearer to Christmas itself is the Rainbow Service, especially for people who've been bereaved. It's right at the other end of the scale from Toddlers' Praise: quiet, reflective and very moving, there's always a very powerful sense of everyone sharing and understanding one another. Even if someone's come by themselves, and doesn't know anyone, they still "belong", because we all share the sadness of bereavement, made more painful by the consumer-fest going on all around us. It's a service that's much appreciated by many, many people - what one lovely man called "The Rainbow Gang".

Two services, so utterly different. And yet... and yet... sharing the same truth, and the same message for all time. St. John put it so beautifully in the opening verses of his Gospel - "The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has never put it out".

In the joy and chaos of Toddlers' Praise - God is.
In the tears and togetherness of the Rainbow Service - God is.

He chose to join us in all our humanity, in the best of the best and the worst of the worst. In that tiny baby, was and is hope for all the world.

Wishing you a meaningful Christmas,

God bless,

Catriona

© Cumbernauld Old Parish Church of Scotland; Registered Scottish Charity SC000877