When we think of Advent, Christmas immediately comes to mind, to add a spiritual dimension, we think of the birth of Jesus. Advent we could say is a ‘space’ where something new can take place in our lives, and God knows we all have need something new to take place in our sometimes-boring dreary and dull lives; we all need renewed momentum in our lives. It’s amazing just how hard-pressed we are nowadays. It’s as though we’re tearing about from one emergency to another. Never solitary never still, never ever really free, but always busy about something that just can’t wait. Amid this frantic hurly-burly we lose touch with life itself. We have the experience of being busy, while nothing real seems to happen. The more agitated we are, the more complicated our lives become and the more difficult it is to keep a space where God can let something truly new take place. We recall in Advent that Jesus has come among us, is present all the time and will come again in glory. He is the child who is born each year, for the world always needs its God and Saviour. Each year we have different needs of God and this year we need this child to come to our lives to give us renewed enthusiasm, renewed willingness, renewed excitement, and renewed hope. To give us more happiness in a world that seems to have lost its spiritual bearings, in a world where perennial happiness seems to elude the majority. We need a child of peace to be born in our own divided acrimonious families; we need a child of hope to be born in our own sometimes depressed, despondent, and downhearted existence. Make room in you hearts this Christmas for Christ, let us pay attention to God’s presence in our lives, let us seek opportunities this Advent to become more aware of how God can touch our lives each day. Allow God into your heart and you will become a better human being, a better husband and father a better wife and mother, a better neighbour and friend and you will also contribute significantly to making a better world.

I knelt to pray but not for long, I had too much to do. I had to hurry and get to work For bills would soon be due. So I knelt and said a hurried prayer, And jumped up off my knees. My Christian duty was now done My soul could rest at ease.  All day long I had no time To spread a word of cheer No time to speak of Christ to friends, They’d laugh at me I’d fear.
No time, no time, too much to do, That was my constant cry, No time to give to souls in need
But at last the time, the time to die. I went before the Lord, I came, I stood with downcast eyes. For in his hands God! held a book; It was the book of life. God looked into his book and said “Your name I cannot find I once was going to write it down. But never found the time”