I didn’t want to start the year on a negative note, so I’m going to avoid the obvious temptation of drawing some parallels with the slow progress of our planned new building and resist the urge to comment on the ongoing frustrations that we are still experiencing with some branches of that great national institution, ‘bureaucracy!’
Instead, I began thinking about how different people can see the same situation in completely different ways. They say that when witnesses to a crime or an accident agree too precisely on what actually happened it is immediately viewed as suspicious, because we all see situations from our own unique viewpoint and there is bound to be differences of opinion and perception. So also, what might be obviously something good to me might not be so obviously good to you (and the other way round).

If over the past few weeks you attended a Christmas service you will most likely have heard read the opening verses from the Gospel of John: ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.’ It goes on to talk about Jesus, the light of the world, coming into the world – a reference to the events we celebrate at Christmas.
But it continues: ‘He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him.’ (John 1:10 NIV) Way back then, and ever since, there have been a whole range of views and reactions to that event. Like the people listed above, some believe it is misguided, madness, irrelevant – or perhaps even the best thing that has ever happened to our world.
Christmas has come and gone. What legacy has it left with you?

Every blessing                        Graham Robinson