Herod and holly

Do not look so alarmed! I sense you are the kind of man who wears responsibility heavily.

Your part in this is important, yes; but mostly because you are a person of this time, and of this place. Please do not be offended if I say that in some ways, you could have been anyone - save the one thing that marked you out today. You were willing to give an old man a few coins. A simple act, and one that did not cost you dear, but a generous act all the same.

And that, as I have said, is all that is required to set the Christmas spirit in motion.

But in the brief time we have spent together, I have learned a great deal about how you see the world; not so much from your words, as from your eyes. Do not ask me how I can do this - I could equally ask you why you cannot. Your hopes and fears, feelings and beliefs are as an open book to me - and they influence the message which I will pass on to others.

After all, when you reflect on the many parts that make up the Christmas story, are they not all strange and contradictory? Palm trees and pine trees ... reindeer and camels ... and just how did those three ships sail into Bethlehem? And yet, somewhere in your mind, these images will make some kind of sense to you. Well, this year, yours is the view of the Christmas story that shall prevail.

For, from this moment I will not rest until around the time of the sun's lowest ebb, spreading the mood of celebration through a million brief conversations and countless tiny acts of kindness. And on that day, when this part of the world holds its breath, fearing eternal darkness, the festive spirit will have gathered the momentum needed for people to believe in a brighter day to come.



Story begins here