Home for Christmas? 16

Thy kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven

2 Corinthians 5. 17-19
So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself.

There are times when we all know that we need healing and that our world needs healing. There are times when we are painfully aware of how far we feel from being the kind of people we would like to be, how far from home we are. The promise of the Bible is that God can make of us a new creation, making us whole in ourselves and reconciling us to one another. Indeed this is a mark of the way his kingdom is - a place where people can start afresh and be remade.

• What do you think needs to be made new in your life?
• Are there people you need to be reconciled with?

This video of R.E.M's song is a reminder of the sense of alienation many people feel sometimes, and some feel often. The truth is that, though we can feel as if we are the only one feeling like this, actually "everybody hurts". When we can accept that we are halfway to making a community where those hurts can be acknowledge and perhaps healed.
If the video below won't play in the blog, try accessing it here on YouTube


"Everybody Hurts"

When your day is long

And the night, the night is yours alone

When you're sure you've had enough

Of this life, well hang on

Don't let yourself go

'Cause everybody cries

And everybody hurts sometimes

Sometimes everything is wrong

Now it's time to sing along

When your day is night alone (Hold on, hold on)

If you feel like letting go (Hold on)

If you think you've had too much

Of this life, well hang on

Everybody hurts

Take comfort in your friends

Everybody hurts

Don't throw in your hand, oh no

Don't throw in your hand

If you feel like you're alone

No, no, no, you are not alone

If you're on your own in this life

The days and nights are long

When you think you've had too much of this life to hang on

Well, everybody hurts sometimes

Everybody cries

Everybody hurts sometimes

And everybody hurts sometimes

So hold on, hold on

Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on

Everybody hurts