Christmas is coming, the geese are getting fat,
Please put a penny in the old man's hat,
If you haven't got a penny, a hapenny will do
If you haven't got a hapenny, then God bless you.

This Christmas we come as travellers through a time of want. Across our world millions have lost their lives to tribal warfare, terrorism, and other atrocities. Where is the light? Who will come to save us?

Enter again the child, Jesus. Who comes to save us? The helpless God who strives to bring our hearts into the light of his love. The child who pleads for all the world to put aside those easy lives of hatred and spite, and come to the hard Gospel of Peace.

As Herod slaughtered the infants trying to maintain his awful power at all costs, so do the forces of evil always try to keep goodness at bay. Yet, each year, He comes again...quietly...helpless...a child born among us to bring us light. Herods of the world die away, and others rise...but, always comes again the Child. Comes again the Light.

Who, then, are we believers?

We are candlebearers in the darkness...lantern holders in the night, light in a world of despair. We are His messengers, and our message is simply to carry the light. If we do this, the darkness will never win, and Peace will come through us in tiny but meaningful ways.

To paraphrase T.H. White's The Once and Future King, we are the bearers of the candle of God's Hope for humankind. "That light, don't let it out."

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