The news, during the week that I am writing this letter, is dominated by the case of a ten year old boy who was attacked and killed by bullies. There is much discussion about the state of our violent and fear ridden housing schemes.

The root cause of the world's terrible problems is to be found in relationships which have been damaged, polluted or destroyed. Most of us know that if we have happy relationships with family or friends or neighbours then we will be happy - even if we have little else in life. In contrast, if we are millionaires, but have unhappy relationships then we will not find true joy. (I think this has been proved true in the lives of several people who have won the lottery). 

One of the great problems of many young people is that they have never known a love that is really committed to them. This means that they do not know what value they have and may even begin to despise themselves. (When this happens they don't care if they damage themselves with drugs.) 

The relationship which lies behind all the others is our relationship with God the Father through His Son Jesus Christ. In our human lives this is reinforced in Christian family life where members of the same family are committed to one another in good times and bad. It is a relationship in which there has to be much giving and receiving. This may often include the giving and receiving of forgiveness and the sharing of pain. In our country the breakdown of Christian family life has brought a generation of rootless and lost children and young people who become wide open to exploitation of many different kinds.

At the heart of the gospel is the story of how God - at enormous cost and pain to Himself - restores our relationship with Him. In the great meekness of God He becomes one with us and enfolds us in His arms of love and takes our sins with Him into death so that we might be renewed and restored in His image for ever.

God's call to us is to love one another as He loves us -  with commitment, faith and hope. That is to say we are to have right relationships with one another.

Although family life is God's norm for the human race, that does not mean that we have to be married in order to be fulfilled as men and women. Jesus Himself never married and lived a single chaste life. Yet His manliness was certainly fulfilled in the way He related to both men, women and children. This has also been true of many Christian people down the ages. 

It was essential for Christ to be one with us in our whole human life. The Bible passages we read around the Christmas period are concerned with His birth and early childhood, and even His life in His mothers womb. God has shown us the enormous value He puts on our whole human life - even for the months before we are born. 

Millions of our children who  have  never  been  taught  the Bible will nevertheless be  singing  the  wonderful  Carols  this Christmas time.  We must  pray that  their beautiful  and telling message will  reach hearts and minds and  prompt many to seek the Lord who loves all that He has made. 

It  certainly was a bleak and cold hearted world into which the Lord came. The Roman  empire was suffering moral collapse with all the attendant suffering  that goes with that. Judah and Jerusalem were governed by  a cruel vassal of the Empire  Herod  who thought nothing of the  murder of little children to protect his power. Later in the century  the nation of Israel was completely destroyed - its name only living on  in the hearts  and minds of  the scattered Jewish people.  Later in the  same century the  infant Christian Church, with no  earthly power or  wealth, was cruelly persecuted by the powers  of the Empire. And yet - just  as prophesied by our Lord  its  message would reach the  ends of the earth. The light has shone in the darkness and the darkness has not extinguished it.