At our Blue Christmas service this week, I told everyone that apparently
there is a Japanese word to describe the very specific kind of sadness that
one experiences after having a bad haircut. Not a sadness I have known
lately, probably because it's difficult to have a bad haircut when you have
as little hair as I do :) But there is something brilliant about there
being a word for that particular kind of sadness. It may not be an
especially tragic kind of loss, but it means that when you use that word,
others will know exactly what you are experiencing, and in that moment,
there is a shared connection and a sense of being less alone in your
sadness.

Our Blue Christmas service recognises that, for many people, Christmas is
not just a time of joy and festivity; it is also a time of sadness, often
loneliness, even despair. During our service on Thursday, we acknowledged
our pain and numbers of people came forward to light candles at the altar,
symbolising a prayer request, or a naming of our sadness. Our sadnesses are
all different, but there was something very powerful about being together
in our pain and seeing all those little lights shining together this week.
We are not alone.

As you prepare for Christmas this year, may you be very conscious of the
God who comes close to us in Jesus, the God who calls himself Emmanuel -
God with us. And may you be encouraged by the reminder that the light of
Christ shines in the darkness and the darkness will never put it out.