We move towards the end of the year with the world in turmoil.

Hundreds of thousands of people are on the move, fleeing from situations so dreadful that they risk their lives to escape. Millions more are displaced and living in refugee camps away from home, family and all that seemed familiar and safe. The Middle East remains in war torn misery. Appalling atrocities are committed upon the innocent in the name of religion. The developed western world repeats its annual conspicuous-consumption driven celebration of the birth of the Prince of Peace. There will be many people for whom Christmas this year will be a hollow sham, and many who look towards the new year with dread and misgiving. Will things get better or are we on some dreadful downward spiral?

Were things so markedly different in Roman occupied Palestine 2000 years ago? An occupying army inflicted misery upon the local people, many of whom fled in terror, and atrocities at Herod’s hand were just as vile as those committed today with bomb and bullet. It was into this situation that God chose to come. Not to some safe place, and a situation of privilege or honour, but to be born as the child of an unmarried mother, in a stable. This was the first chapter of the greatest love story the world has ever known. A love story which continued for some thirty years, and concluded on a cross in Jerusalem, and with the gift of the Holy Spirit.

It was to the despised shepherds that the angels first appeared, singing Glory to God. It was over the foreign astrologers that the star shone, leading them in confusion but trust to kneel at God’s cradle. It was to a refugee family that God entrusted himself in the person of Jesus. It was to the outcast that God’s love was first made known.

And the greatest part of the message of love was that there is hope.

We are not abandoned, forgotten about, or ignored, but we are held in the hollow of a loving God’s hand, who knows us each by name, cares about us, wants only the best for us, and was ready to die for us.

There is still hope in this damaged and hurting world as good women and children and men transfigure and transform their painful and difficult circumstances, and work for the good of others and of the world itself.

There are many dark days and dark deeds, but the light of the glory of God shines brighter than any darkness, and we see that light shining most brightly from the Christmas Crib and in the faces of our brothers and sisters of all races and colours and creeds. St Paul wrote, “In Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free” ... and we might continue ... Muslim nor Buddhist, male nor female, able nor differently able. God loves us all, and most of us love one another. Keep loving and keep hoping and keep on being and doing as much good as you can. It is not a waste of effort, and ultimately good will triumph over evil. In the meanwhile, “Where is God when we need him?” Surely he’s carrying us in his loving arms.