Christmas Messages: random acts of kindness

I would be surprised if most of you reading this have not seen the film It’s a Wonderful Life. It has been ranked as the most powerful movie of all time.

In it, George Bailey is about to commit suicide when an angel gives him the chance to see what the world would have been like if he had never been born. He visits numerous situations and realises how much good he actually has done in his life.

That prompts me to two thoughts. First, it is heartening how all of us have contributed little things along life’s path that we have forgotten but which have affected others deeply and which they will probably remember for ever.

Do take the chance to perform ‘random acts of kindness’ whenever you can – and enjoy them.

But secondly, what if certain people had never been born? What would the world be like? Take Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, Thomas Barnardo – or Jesus?

Think of the countless transformations in people’s lives that have been brought about through folk being inspired by the healing love and sacrificial power of Jesus.

Of course, there are the well­known ones like Wilberforce abolishing slavery and Mother Theresa bringing real hope to the abject poor; but there are also the innumerable acts of charity and caring that have gone on for the last two thousand years and which have been rooted in the Saviour whose birth we again celebrate this week.

I give thanks to God our Creator for that birth and that transforming power. May it touch your life now.

Every blessing to you and your family this Christmas.