Join the celebration!
Everybody knows the opening verse of the ancient Carol "0 come all ye faithful". It is an invitation to come and celebrate the birth of Jesus. We can't take it literally and go to Bethlehem at 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.
Christmas at Sandown Baptist Church will be a celebration of Christ’s coming to be with us. Perhaps there will be will be decorations, lights, a manger, candles, music, carols, and mince pies. 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.