The Vicarage, Whitwell SG4 8HX.  01438-871121. Email: slfielding@hotmail.com

A New Year arrives and the world moves on. Perhaps, like me, you will look back and see what happened last year; or you will look ahead and wonder what 2020 will bring. Either way, you will be looking – using your eyes in the search for something.

The Christmas story is not only about the birth of Jesus. It also includes the story of wise men or kings who came from afar looking for Jesus.  They found him: and in January the church celebrates this wonderful showing of Jesus to the world – his ‘Epiphany’ as we call it. We shall celebrate the Epiphany on Sunday, 5 January, and we shall remind ourselves that Jesus remains available and open to all, however far away they may currently be from him.

What we look for we find, and what we focus on grows. I firmly believe this. Over the last few weeks we have been looking at a little book called Looking and Longing. It is about our search for God, and for the God who comes in Jesus. If you would like to join us, we meet on Wednesday afternoons at 2 pm for an hour. In searching for God and in looking for Jesus, we also find that we discover a little more about ourselves and about others.

In wishing you a very happy New Year, may I hope that your own looking and searching will be fruitful and life-giving in the year ahead.

Every blessing

Stephen