Having just been to two primary school nativity services in two days I can definitely say that the sense of Christmas drawing near is a tangible reality! The familiar combination of old and new songs, Bible readings, poems, school children dressed as various characters from the Nativity story (it’s amazing the ingenuity that teachers have), microphones being passed amongst those reading and the teary-eyed viewing of parents and grandparents will make those services ones that won’t be forgotten in a hurry.

But a key part of those nativity performances was what the Vicar had to say towards the end. So let me tell you what I told them (apologies to the parents and staff at All Saints Primary School, Ilkley as you have already heard this!)

I began by saying that somebody was sitting in the ‘Golden Chair’, and because of that they would win a Cadbury’s Selection Box. The location of the ‘Golden Chair’ was determined by random pieces of information that had been given to me before the service began and revealed by me at that moment. So the grandparent sitting in G6, and the Mum sitting in F4 were the surprised, but grateful, recipients of the chocolate prize. It was obvious that all the pupils (and many of the parents) wished they had been in the ‘Golden Chair’, a wish that increased exponentially when I asked them how they would feel if the ‘Golden Chair’ prize had been £10million (it wasn’t by the way – it was just an illustration!)!

But my main point was that the best news that they could hear this Christmas was not that they could possibly win a prize, but that they could definitely receive a present that was priceless beyond measure.

‘Jesus was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich. (2 Corinthians 8:9)

The wonderful Good News of Christmas is that we were created to be in relationship with God forever, but we’re not because we’ve properly messed it up by having little time for God in our lives. But God doesn’t see our NO to Him as the final word. And because of that Jesus laid aside His riches of eternity in God’s presence to be born into our everyday normality. And because He lived, died and rose from the dead, we can know the riches of eternity in God’s presence in our everyday normality, because our relationship with God can be reconciled through Jesus Christ.

Jesus was born at that moment in Bethlehem so that He could change every moment for everybody, whoever, wherever, whenever. Jesus was born into poverty so that we could know the riches of God’s hope, peace, joy, purpose, meaning and fulfilment - not fleetingly on a local scale but permanently on an eternal scale. Jesus can bring God’s riches into our everyday lives, transforming darkness to light, despair to hope and death to life.

So getting the prize of a Cadbury’s Selection Box can make for a happier Christmas this year, but receiving the present of God’s glorious riches through Jesus Christ will make for the happiest Christmas every year. The question is are you willing to receive and open God’s present to you?

Happy Christmas!