CHRISTMAS PEACE

Christmas has forever made the world a better place. It dramatically reveals the identity of God and also shows us how we can each help to make our community a better place.
From Christmas we know that God-

PARENTS
God is a Father who does what fathers do- protects, provides, plays with, and prays for His Child.

We can continue to make our Valley a better place by giving our community children who know how to respect public property, each other, the vulnerable, and the less well-off. Good parenting is extremely hard work but it pays dividends like no other investment.

EXTOL
God gave away what He wanted most: love. By doing this He extolled love as the highest virtue.

We can continue to make our community a better place by giving away what we ourselves want. This might involve volunteering – in fact, the real wealth of a community is not measured in dollars, but in its care for each other and this is generally gauged by the level of volunteering within a community. Thank God, not just for the Salvos, but for the Fireys, School Canteen staff, St John’s Ambulance, the soccer coaches, the local tennis coach, Neighbourhood Watch and our church groups that all could not function without volunteers.

ACTION
God has a plan of action. He saw a problem and took action. No matter what problem you are facing, with God’s help you can deal with it.

We can continue to make our Valley a better place by getting involved and all taking action: run for Council, join Neighbourhood Watch, support tree planting, clean-up days, working bees, keeping our properties fire-safe and well maintained.

COMMUNITY
God works in community. His plan involved a young virgin girl, a kind hearted carpenter, shepherds, wise-men, Herod and an Inn Keeper.
We can continue to make our Valley a better place by working in community and being community-minded. Don’t automatically think of your neighbour as “nosey” when they are simply showing care and concern for you. Christmas and New Year is a great time to get to know your neighbours over a backyard BBQ.

EVERYBODY
Everybody matters to God. Whether you are rich or poor, important or insignificant, yellow black or white, healthy or unwell, you matter to God.

We can continue to make our Valley a better place by ensuring that everybody is looked after, treated fairly and welcomed irregardless of our differences with them.

Happy New Year,
Dr Andrew Corbett