Christmas Messages: a time for singing

A couple of weeks ago I reversed into a lamp post, just didn’t see it ­ sometimes we take damage when we don’t notice what matters.

During Glasgow 2014, photo artist Wendy McMurdo showed a series of photos —­ astonishing images catching quickly passing moments in young people’s play of sheer wonder in just living.

Mary’s song in Luke’s Gospel is a moment of pause ­ so many reasons why she should be distracted, worried, anxious, full of fear for the future, all good reasons­ a young, unmarried, soon-to-be­-mother living precariously in a culture where that was all stigmatised.

And yet she pauses...and sings...of this astonishing thing ­ God, in Jesus, has taken notice of her and he will scatter the proud and lift up the humble.

This song of Mary has been banned at times, when it has started to be sung by people such as Mary, because it sings of the value that God has placed on each of us.

God speaks from the place of the humble and not the powerful. Advent celebrates that.

Maybe in the midst of the rush we can pause and see the wonder of what God has done, and sing...