Christmas is a time for going further in the care and energy and resources we offer to others.  The result is an enrichment of ourselves and others too.  God giving us the supreme sign of the value and meaning of human life in a small baby is the founding example of this amazing process.  We can celebrate it and test it for ourselves, and Christmas provides the key opportunity.

Yet we come to Christmas in a world dominated by ‘cuts.’  People are expecting to receive less, rather than more.   In many ways this approach has been powerful for years – the desire to pay less tax has easily translated into a desire to give less for the life of the community.  Just at the time when the levels of our expectations as to what we should receive in areas like health and education, have been constantly rising.

This Christmas can be a moment of real challenge to us.  We all flourish through the generous kind of giving to others that creates thankfulness, good will, richer life, - something that Christians call grace.  Givers almost always get back more.

Whatever the debate about ‘cuts’ and their necessity, I hope that this Christmas season will remind us that the most essential resolution we can make for next year is to give generously, to our friends and families, to our communities, to the needs of God’s world.

The Christmas child only grew healthily because he was loved and nourished.  The same goes for each of us, and for our wider communities too.  As Scripture puts it – God loves a cheerful giver.