WHAT would you do if you knew the King was coming for tea?
That’s exactly what happened to us recently. We did everything to get ready with four days’ notice.
The church was cleaned, decorations were put up, guest lists and security checks were done.
Then Myleene Klass, myself and others waited until his arrival.
His Majesty was visiting St Peter’s Notting Hill to celebrate the work of the Disasters Emergency Committee, of which Myleene is an ambassador.
But the truth is, when the King turns up, he’s pretty hard to miss — police outriders, very grand car, entourage and cheering crowds.
Which brings home to me afresh the shock and contrast of that first Christmas. Because the people of God had been waiting for their King for hundreds of years.
They’d heard He was coming. But despite hundreds of prophecies, nobody was ready.
No police outriders, no decorations, no cheering crowds. Not even any room at the inn. The Word made flesh, the King, God himself! Born in a cold, dark stable. Unannounced, unexpected, unrecognised.
Which has left me feeling anew the humility and risk of it all, that no doubt explains empty streets back then and perhaps explains empty churches today.
Because the truth of it is, IT’S EASY TO MISS JESUS.
Yes, a few shepherds turn up, having been told the good news by angels. Yes, some pagan star-gazing wise men arrive from the East. But among his own people, his own subjects, not a single one was found.
You see, it’s easy to miss Jesus.
The poverty, the humility, the downright humanness of it all. Not just true at His birth, but throughout His life and in His death.
Apostle John accurately writes: “He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognise him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.”
It’s quite something to meet the King of the United Kingdom. It’s another thing entirely to meet the King of the Kingdom of Heaven.
Rev Pat Allerton
It’s easy to miss Jesus both for people back then but also for us today because it all seems a little bit crazy. Which it is.
But then, isn’t everything? I write this article on a plane, criss- crossing a planet that’s orbiting the sun while hurtling through space.
Isn’t life itself a miracle? And ultimately, is it that much crazier to believe in the virgin birth of a creator coming to reveal Himself to the creation he so loves, than to believe in the virgin birth of the universe, where supposedly nothing created something and that something became everything? Faith is needed for both, so it’s more a case of choose your miracle.
I just find it more plausible that this infinitely complex universe has a creator who loves us, who made us, and who at one point in history chose to be born and make himself known.
After all, when you love something or someone – your newborn baby, that new relationship – don’t you long to be with that person, to be close to them, to connect with them? So why not God with us?
So as we look towards 2025, is it worth giving God another look? Is it worth exploring faith for yourself? Because as we see in the Christmas story, it’s easy to miss Jesus.
Get the identity of Jesus right, however, and so much else falls into place. We find peace for anxious hearts and minds because He is the “Prince of Peace”, Isaiah tells us.
And we find a spiritual home and loving embrace because He is the “Everlasting Father” who died for us but rose again and is alive for evermore.
It’s quite something to meet the King of the United Kingdom.
It’s another thing entirely to meet the King of the Kingdom of Heaven.
But that’s exactly what’s on offer.
Happy Christmas.
