Rev Charles Dufour, Contributor

THE aircraft that flies between MoBay and Kingston allows a wonderful view of our nation. It flies low enough, too, that you can see particular places, and call them by name. Any land is beautiful so high in the sky, but the real beauty of flying over Jamaica comes from seeing the land and the towns where we have been, the people we love - when we are not so high in the sky.

The message of Christmas is about God having so much love for us that He wants to share our human life. He wants to be with us. It is difficult for us to understand. Who would want to share our poverty, our love, our death? It is easier to see God as far away, distant, untouched by our selfishness and our sinfulness.

It's not what we would expect from God. Or, at least, if he has to come into our world, it would make more sense to us that he would come as a king with great power and honour.

Christmas is a time when we might look back and ask ourselves, "When did God visit us?" When we look back at the past year, it is hard to see God present in a world of hunger and violence, greed and injustice. In our nation we have faced some terrible violence of the inner city, continuing unemployment, increasing poverty and family instability. Where is the prince of peace? Where is the Saviour and King? The Bible assures us that God hears the cry of the poor. How has He answered our prayers of peace?

"I am with you always," Jesus promised his disciples after the resurrection (Matt. 18:20). In the midst of our broken world, Jesus is with us. He is offering love and forgiveness as the way to reconciliation. Where there is poverty and hunger, He is with us, bringing good news that our Father hears the cry of the poor. Where there is pain and suffering, He is with us, bringing healing and new life.

The story of Bethlehem teaches us the simple but mysterious truth that God desires to be with us, to love us, and to save our broken world.

It teaches us that His visitation through Christ and in the Spirit may be in hidden and quiet ways, as it was in the time of Mary and Joseph. "Stay awake, then, for you do not know either the day or the hour" (Matt. 25:13) - our Saviour comes at a time and in ways that we do not expect.

If we ponder in our hearts the mysterious, unexpected and quiet movement of God in the world - like a virgin who gave birth to a son called Emmanuel - then we find him in the face of our brothers and sister

Rev Cleve Grant, Contributor

2001 is now coming to a close and has been marked with change, decay, sorrow, joy, natural disasters, war and terrorism, discovery and division, tribal war, sickness and blight.

Amidst the challenges and the perplexity, we need to pause this Christmas to turn to the master, Jesus Christ, Emmanuel, who came as a baby in Bethlehem to bring peace to the world even now so torn with war and misunderstanding, ethnic hate, cruelty and racism, drug addiction and violence on a worldwide dimension. Jesus Christ came to bring light, joy and peace all so desperately needed today.

Let us turn again to these and find help at such a time as this.

What a Jamaica this would become if the Light of the gospel would be allowed to light up our lives. Those dark corners need the light of God to drive out the evil. Stop for a moment and think of the horrible murders which have spoiled the landscape of the year which is passing away. Perhaps your hands are dripping with blood even as you read this.

Not only did the master come to shine the light in our lives, but He came to bring joy to replace sorrow. So many languish in sorrow, pain and distress even after September 11 as the world was jolted by that New York tragedy, indeed a wake-up call. Thank God that the multidimensional Jesus Christ, multi-national, multilingual is able to heal the deep wounds of hate and racism, greed and selfishness.

The hymn writer says 'Joy to the world the Lord is come let earth receive her King', let every heart prepare him room...Thank God, Jesus Christ is multi-cultural, the One who has the answer to the racism and the hate of our world.