Christmas Cards

Christmas cards – have you begun to receive them? Have you written yours?

In our digital age and given the cost of postage, to receive a hand-written Christmas card is all the more special. Do you know the origin of Christmas cards?

In 1843, a senior civil servant, Sir Henry Cole, who helped set up the post service and is credited with the design of the first postage stamp, the Penny Black, commissioned an artist to produce a card to send to his friends.

The card shows a group of friends eating and drinking in a merry Christmas scene. On the back of the card was another illustration – of poor people being clothed and fed. 2,000 cards were produced of which 1,000 were coloured by hand. The cards were very expensive to produce and greatly valued by the recipients. Today, these cards are very valuable. In December 2005, a collector payed £22,500 for a rare coloured card and in 2013, £4,200 for a black and white card

At Christmas, we remember that God has sent us a priceless and amazing message not in a card but in a person – His son Jesus Christ. Just as a Christmas card can tell us something about the sender, Jesus tells us everything we need to know about God. The message from God to us is personal, priceless and life changing- that we can receive the gift of an individual relationship with God now and forever. That in the darkness of our times, the light of heaven has come and is with us and for us every day.

As we write and receive Christmas cards, I pray that you may know God’s loving presence more fully through each day as we journey through Advent. I hope that you may share in and be blessed by our worship this month.