Dear FriendsI don’t know if you have ever walked a labyrinth before – it is a bit like a maze although has no walls and you always end up in the centre. The place where I go on retreat has a labyrinth and it is described as a walking meditation or symbolising the journey of life. On my last time at the retreat centre, I got to the centre of the labyrinth to find that people before me had laid stones in the centre, one of them said hope. I think that hope is something that we all need a little bit of (or maybe a lot) in our present time. A friend and I were messaging recently, and she said I think everything is broken, and it does feel like this, but there is always hope.This season symbolises the greatest hope of all time as we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, God’s Son come to earth for each one of us. God came to earth to be amongst people, to come alongside those often at the margins of society. His birth brings the outworking of hundreds of years of prophecy about someone who would come, but people were not expecting this person to come as a baby, to be laid in the cattle feeding trough, to be a refugee fleeing with his parents for his life, but he came into the midst of all this and he still comes today. Matthew’s Gospel tells us that the coming of Jesus was told by prophets - ‘Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel’, which means, ‘God is with us.’ This can always be cause for hope and life even in the midst of difficult and challenging circumstances.We are looking forward to celebrating Christmas at St Peter’s, Yaxley and we hope that you will join us over the Advent and Christmas season. You can see our services along with this letter and you are welcome to any of our different services and events. Come and hear afresh the message of Jesus, who shows us that God really is here with us 2000 years ago and in 2024.With every blessing for a very Happy Christmas Rev Sarah and the church family at St Peter’s, Yaxley vicar@stpetersyaxley.co.uk/yaxleyvicar@gmail.com 01733 240996/07498 230858https://youtu.be/aRkKqD-Ohq0
