As I look forward to Christmas I am reminded that Jesus was born into an uncertain world. His parents, Mary and Joseph, were far from home and would have been sleeping on the streets but for the presumed kindness of an innkeeper. Within months of Jesus birth, they were refugees in Egypt. It is hard to imagine the challenges they faced and the suffering they experienced, but there are many in our world today who have personal experiences that are not dissimilar.

Yet Mary and Joseph were sustained by the promises made to them by God before Jesus was born. They trusted in what they had been told and found it enabled them to cope with the hard times they went through.

It isn’t easy to trust God’s promises when everything seems against us. But the Bible tells us about God who loves us and is faithful to us. We can trust him too, and discover that faith in God can provide us with the resources we need to cope with whatever life throws at us.

I hope everyone enjoys a peaceful and joyful Christmas, and a New Year that is full of discoveries about the amazing goodness of God, a God who knows what tough times are like and stands alongside us through them all.