Christmas Adverts
(Photo John Lewis & Partners here)
Thankyou Peter. My thought for the day today is entitled “Christmas adverts”.
I don’t know about you, but one of
the fun things to look out for in your Christmas TV viewing is the adverts.
There have been some great ones over the years.
- Mrs Claus- M&S 2016.
- Monty the Penguin, John Lewis
2018
- Kevin the Carrot from Aldi (most
years!)
My particular favourite is
Excitable Edgar from John Lewis 2019. You might remember that Edgar was a little
dragon, and unfortunately he kept ruining Christmas.
You see the trouble with Dragons is
that they breath fire, and fire and Christmas trees, or ice skaters or snowmen
don’t really mix.
In fact Edgar is a bit of a
liability, and he ends up hiding himself away. Except a little red haired girl called
Ava takes pity on him and goes after him.
To the tune of “I can’t fight this
feeling any longer” Edgar arrives at the banquet, and everyone ducks for cover. Is
he going to burn the place down and ruin Christmas? No wonderfully, Edgar has a
plate of Christmas pudding in front of him, and he successfully limits his
excitement to breathe fire onto the Christmas pudding, putting the perfect blue
flame on it!
Well I can’t help feeling that Edgar
is a little bit like us. Our mistakes should lead us to be shut out of the
party. We live in God’s world, and yet we’ve lived like we are the King instead.
But rather than being banished and
alone for our selfishness, someone came after us, and welcomed us in, allowing
us to use our own unique gifts and talents to serve others.
That person who welcomes us is not
a little girl called Ava, but a little baby boy called Jesus, who is God come
to earth to welcome us in.
So don’t think that you are
unwelcome at God’s feast this Christmas, even if you aren’t invited to anyone
else’s. God reaches out to you with kindness and mercy, and he welcomes you in.
As the angels said to the Shepherds, “Behold I bring you good news of great joy
for all the people today in the town of David a Saviour is born, he is the Messiah,
the Lord”.
Thank you for listening and have a
wonderful Christmas.
Charlie Newcombe 20DEC23