As a new year beckons . .

I'm off to do a funeral visit shortly and it got me thinking, as I sorted the paperwork for the week ahead and the five funerals it holds, just how tough it is to lose a loved one on the run-in to christmas and during what would otherwise be a festive time.

During the first service on Christmas morning I noticed the 'collection' van of one of the local undertakers and spent a moment thinking about a family somewhere in our patch and their not so pleasant Christmas morning.

Taking communion to those who couldn't make church on Christmas Day took me to meet people who were faring less well that we might have hoped. Depression, Problems that come from an ever increasing age and the dreadfulness of Cancer and other illnesses all stood out in stark contrast to the joyful scenes elsewhere.

The news that a young woman who had been reported missing from her Bristol home had been found dead. The thoughts for those whose daughter, barely a teenager, would be keeping her last Christmas and for those whose loved one were facing danger on operational tours across the globe, seeking to bring peace to places where peace was obviously not to be found.

Everywhere there are people who will be looking to 2011 with pain and the sadness of personal loss. There is an answer to every question, even when there is perhaps no easy answer. There is comfort for those who mourn, even when at this time it appears to be far off and be presented as merely hollow and trite commiserations.

There is a time coming when jesus, the Christ, the Babe of bethlehem will return and will establish His Kingdom:

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling placea of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” And he said to me,
“It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.
To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son. But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulphur, which is the second death.”

But until then we, the Church, are the answers to the questions.

We are the balm to the pain and the comfort of the afflicted through the indwelling of His Holy Spirit and by the blood of the Lamb.

Looks like a busy year ahead.