Letter from Simon Nicholls

Jingle cash, jingle cash, jingle all the way..
oh what fun it is to spend, in that Christmas only waaaaay

But I'm not going to be all humbug and cynical about this, not least because so many of us these days are dependent on the Christmas rush for our livelihoods. For example Shirley (my wife- who in case you didn't know manages Revelations, the diocesan bookshop) would find it very hard to balance the books without the huge boost from December sales.

My sister-in-law owns a record shop (well CD shop, no-one buys records now) in Leicester, and if it weren't for November and December it wouldn't be worth keeping the shop going at all. The cash some people seem to have to throw around at Christmas is amazing. Shirley tells me that, as I write in mid November, nearly all of the Christmas cards, advent calendars and advent candles (which she ordered last January believe it or not) have already sold. There may be just a few left as you read this so get down there straight away! Last year when I helped out in Revelations approaching Christmas I was amazed by the number of £40, £50. £80 bibles, that are bought at Christmas. The Good News is so much better news when read from an £80 bible than when read from a £2.99 paperback gospel.

Last Christmas Eve then, off I set to go to the midnight mass in Earl Soham. I'd only gone about 100 metres when I realised I hadn't picked up the 2 buttons and an Esso token I usually take to put in the collection. The real bonus in using buttons and Esso tokens for collection is that the wardens always leave these on the table at the back when they do the counting, so you can pick them up later and use them again. (By the way for those of you that haven't realised yet: this is irony, I don't really do this.. "do you know what irony is Baldrick?". "is it like silvery and goldery my Lord"). Anyhow; so here's the dilemma, do I: go back for the buttons; do the faux giving hand slide as the collection bag passes; or give it the hand waving "I gave earlier mumble". Then there came option number four- and this really is true, no it's not irony nor a bit of Hollywood Christmas movie pukery- as a car sped past something fluttered up in its headlights. Somehow in that fleeting flash I knew what it was and went torch in hand to the middle of the street. There it was, £30, a tenner and a twenty, all limp and damp in the wet road. Where it had come from, goodness only knows. How it came to be fluttering in the car's headlights is equally mysterious. But here was my collection. No buttons or fake giving for me, in this bleak mid winter, I'd got my own personal "wad" and I was going to give it all. In Isaiah 9:6 we are told about the gift God will give to us.

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called  Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,  Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 

What on Earth could we give such a child, I'll let Christina Georgetti tell us that:

What can I give him, Poor as I am,
If I were a shepherd, I would give a lamb
If I were a wise man, I would do my part
Yet what can I give him; give my heart.

Have a Happy Christmas, Simon Nicholls