My meditation for today touches on a subject that is most fitting for the start of a new year, namely, how we can become closer to God and how we can grow in Him and be nourished by Him. My meditation only begins the conversation, but bids us think about how we might individually 'take care of this' in our own lives--by prayer, perhaps, or by the study and meditation of Scripture, or by worship, or by small group study groups. There are many ways and it behoves us to examine our lives and see what works best for each of us individually. So, I leave you with that task.

Today's Scripture passage is a wonderful story of forgiveness, redemption and a brand-new start. It is a great one to preface our new year, which is a great time to reflect on times past, and make new plans for the future.

If it is true as someone once said that the darkest hour is just before dawn, then the coming of Jesus Christ into our world has to be unmitigated good news. The world He entered into in person was certainly a dark and dangerous place, and so is our world today. So, to know that Jesus was, and is, the light that shines in the darkness, such that the darkness cannot overcome it, is good news for all of us.

John the Baptist truly lived up to his name, which means 'gift of God', and certainly made use of that gift in what was a remarkably short and ill-ending life. Imagine: in those few short years, he truly prepared the way of the Lord, got people ready, and even introduced people to Jesus. That's a pretty remarkable achievement.

For me, that cannot help but make me think about my gifts, our gifts, and how we make use of them, whether our time on earth is relatively short or rather lengthy. Just what impact and contribution are we making to our world, to our community, to our circle of family and friends, and to our church? Maybe this Christmas/ pre New Year time is a good time to assess this, and maybe even make some resolutions of what we might continue, though more intentionally perhaps, or what we might start.

All of us have been blessed by God in oh-so many ways. Living on this planet Earth, and living in Canada, for instance. Having access to a level of housing, food, health care and necessities that much of the world only dreams of. And then the blessings of our faith, the blessing of knowing and being known by Jesus Christ...and so much else.

Sadly, far too often we forget about all our blessings and grumble or complain instead. And sometimes we grumble about things that really are our blessings, our health care, for instance, or our churches or our momentary afflictions and problems.

The Virgin Mary would most certainly be facing afflictions and problems when she said 'yes' to God. Here she was, probably not even out of her teen years as yet, saying 'yes' to something that would profoundly change her life and upset all the plans that she and Joseph had made together--her entire future thrown into turmoil, as it were. And yes, because of her 'yes', Jesus was able to come into the world and the world became a better place. And so it is with our 'yes's' as well: God enters our world through us, becomes enfleshed in us, and the world is changed for the better. So maybe our prayer should be, "Lord, help me to say 'yes', yes to your blessings even when they don't appear to be blessings at all.

Today in the church's calendar we celebrate St. Thomas the Apostle. He happens to be one of my favourite saints and, to me, a wonderful role model of what it means to be curious, willing to search and seek and ask questions, and wanting to know the answers. To me, we should all be like that.

For some folks back in the time of Jesus, people like the Roman and Jewish hierarchy, things were pretty good. But, for the rank and file of the ordinary people in Judaea things were very dismal. As if being subjected to the whims of foreign overlords wasn't bad enough, there was massive taxation, such that many people were in great financial difficulty and many people were reduced to losing their homes, farms, and businesses in order to pay those taxes. Add to that, the fact that food was scarce and dear meant that many people barely lived at a subsistence level. So the announcement of 'good news' by John the Baptist was welcome indeed.

Today, many of us find ourselves in a somewhat similar state: the political winds, whether here in Canada or elsewhere, blow unevenly and strangely, costs are rising exponentially, and the state of health care is perilous at best. And so, good news is very welcome to us as well, especially the good news of a Saviour who would be one of us, dwell in our midst, and help us in our adversity. Today, in this season of Advent, we remember that first coming with glee and thanksgiving, His more recent coming into our lives and our hearts, and His future coming when He will finally set all the world 'to rights'. It is this vein, that I send out my meditation for today.