The Rev Steve Proudlove, vicar at St John’s, Menston

AT time of writing I’m already behind with the Advent calendar! It seems that gone are the days when I tried to sneak extra chocolates a day or two early unless my parents caught me! Now instead I forget to open the door each day and end up behind.

Christmas can leave many of us ‘behind’. Behind on the Advent calendar, behind with the Christmas shopping, behind with the ordering of the turkey… Obviously these things can be concerning, but perhaps not quite in the same league as ending up behind with the credit card bills, behind with the rent, or ‘behind’ with spending time with those we love because we’ve got so much going on we’ve put everything else on the back-burner.

There’s so much that could be said about this. One is to say that we all make mistakes. Another is to say that for some of these issues practical help exists and we don’t need to feel bad about seeking it out. There’s also the presence of so many people around us who care for us and would love to help us.

From a Christian perspective, there is even more which can be said. When God sent his son, Jesus, to the world at the first Christmas, he did so because he loves us. He didn’t do it because of any future church-going and money-giving potential that we have, but simply because of love. Jesus came and lived as a family member, through all the messiness that brings. Jesus built friendships, probably had embarrassing relatives just like the rest of us, and negotiated the financial and relational pitfalls that we do.

In Jesus, we see God committed to relationship with people. We see God walking with individual people, literally and emotionally, in the ups and downs of life. This means that when we find ourselves ‘behind’ in whatever way that is this Christmas, we can know God walking with us through it – we aren’t alone.

For some, this sounds difficult, and we may feel like we don’t deserve God’s help, or we feel so distant from God that we can’t imagine walking in his company. Perhaps there’s something in the very act of being ‘behind’ that means we can look forward and see Jesus ahead of us this Christmas, reassuring us that there is a path to follow. Jesus waits for us to reach for him. He will never leave us because he is God come to the world for precisely those of us who at times have fallen behind.