WHEN a child is born, everything changes. We re-lived this reality in the middle of lockdown earlier in the year.
At the time, our daughter and her husband were sharing our home and she was expecting.
On May 27, her baby son arrived, and everything else stopped as the family re-adjusted itself to this new, noisy, hungry, demanding individual who would not be ignored.
It was an exhausting time of great joy. In years to come I hope this baby will arrive repeatedly at our door - as a child, a teenager and then as a man.
I hope he will feel loved, welcomed and accepted, and be at home with us.
Welcoming Jesus to our lives and homes at Christmas will be disruptive for us, if we allow him in.
He will not be noisy and hungry like a baby, but his coming will be like turning on a light in a darkened room.
His arrival at the door will change everything, if you let him in: "Look, I stand at the door and knock..." (Revelation 3:20).
Rt Rev Dr David Bruce
Moderator, Presbyterian Church in Ireland
