Msg Wtng

Carol Vorderman, Queen of the Consonants, placed her final vowels on the Countdown board a few weeks ago. For TV quizzes, it was the end of an era; Ms Vorderman - who was born at Christmas-time, hence her Christian name- had been there since the beginning and there were more than a few tears shed on that final show when it aired on the 12th December.

Meanwhile, back in Adventland, the countdown to Christmas is nearly over and the last of those high numbers will be revealed in a few hours and bells will chime to herald the Word which has always been there, never hiding in an anagram.

There is a message waiting indeed. It doesn't matter if some of the vowels are missing (like my blog posts this year!), nor does the Christmas story always add up to some commentators from our limited human perspective- but why should it? Life itself is a wonderfully complex puzzle which none of us will solve in this life in three score years and ten or more, let alone thirty seconds. But it's no conundrum.

In the birth of Jesus the Saviour is revealed the answer to life, the universe and everything in it's sweetest form- a tiny, helpless, naked and yet perfect baby. And no ticking clock can limit the time we should spend pondering that awesome mystery of God himself being born among us. No human mind can quite take it in, but it is God's own brilliant solution, and it makes me cry just writing about it.

May your Christmas joy be unrestrained, and your hearts filled with the peace which passes all understanding.