I heard about a little girl taking part in a Christmas pageant dressed as an angel, being told by her Sunday School teacher to make her appearance by coming down the centre aisle. The little girl’s response was: ‘Do you want me to walk or do you want me to fly?’ It almost made me think she could have flown.

We must never lose the wonder and mystery of Christmas. Every year I’m reminded of those words of the late Peter Marshall: ‘When Christmas doesn’t make your heart swell up until it nearly bursts and fill your eyes with tears and make you all soft and warm inside then you will know that something inside of you is dead.’

Joy is what makes Christmas. Most of us have things that trigger that joy; but whatever they are, they merely point us to that greater joy born again into our souls – God with us.