It's Christmasssssss!

“Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel, which means ‘God is with us.’” Matthew 1:23
“So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.” Luke 2:4-7
All the squares on your advent calendar are done. Your tree lights are turned on (In my case live on radio 1 by Aled from the Chris Moyles show – see below). The presents are opened. The turkey is either in the oven or your belly. It may even be a white Christmas (I’m writing this in advance so can’t be sure). Wherever you are, whatever you are doing to celebrate the birth of Christ, we at All4God want to wish you a merry Christmas, and ask you to remember in the midst of the presents, eating loads and general merriment, Christmas means more. Christmas is proof of God’s love for us. Christmas is a sign of Jesus’ solidarity with us. Christmas offers hope to all. Christmas is about a free gift of salvation. Merry Christmas!

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And seen as its Christmas, something a little more light hearted than usual, a wee personal anecdote with no spiritual significance attached (feel free to derive some though!)
I don’t know if you listen to the Chris Moyles show on Radio 1? It may well be on too early in the morning for some of you, finishing as it does at 10am. Last week they were in Northern Ireland for a live show, and were doing the breakfast show live from Belfast last Friday. And as part of it they had a feature where Aled from the show switched on Christmas lights. So I applied to get the lights in my university halls of residence switched on. And lo and behold, they called me up last Wednesday and said they had chosen my halls. So last Friday Aled came in and for a brief moment I was live on Radio 1 (unfortunately I didn’t have a chance to give a shoutout to All4God though 🙁 – maybe next time…). So if any of you were listening last Friday, heard ‘Peter McMurray’ and thought “Is that the guy from all4God?” I can confirm, yes, yes it was!
If you didn’t hear it, and want to, I have the clip as a youtube video that you can listen to and see pictures of the tree that got turned on.
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