Join the celebration!
Everybody knows the opening verse of the ancient Carol "0 come all ye faithful". It is an invitation to come and join in with
the Christmas celebrations. We can't take it literally and go to Bethlehem in the time of the Roman occupation to see the
Christ-Child born. We can, however, join together and celebrate the anniversary.
Christmas is, literally, the festival of Christ. It is unashamedly, a celebration of the day when God sent his only Son to
be with humanity. We certainly didn't do anything to deserve this fantastic gift but it was given anyway, out of love. So
today we mark this milepost in the life of the world partly by giving gifts to our loved ones but also by celebrating God's
generosity to us.
At the time of writing we do not know what this Christmas at Sandown Baptist Church will be like. We would certainly like
to make it a celebration of Christ’s coming to be with us. We hope that there will be Christmas trees, although our annual
Christmas Tree Festival, like others, will have to be put off until next year. Perhaps there will be will be decorations,
lights, a manger, candles, music, carols, and mince pies. At the moment we cannot tell. However we do it we will celebrate
the birth of Jesus.
So, in the words of a much more modern carol, "Come and join the celebration, it's a very special day". We hope to see you
at Christmas but if we can’t be together we will still all be celebrating at the same time, if not in the same place. .