I remember the first time I went to Zimbabwe. It was at the end of November, carols were playing in shopping precincts, and there were Christmas lights and models of Santa and snow-scenes. It all seemed slightly out of context somehow, to have these scenes depicted so clearly, in a nation where snow is never even seen. And I asked myself: so what do people think Christmas means? It doesn’t seem a very robust understanding of the incarnation!

Last week I was in Uganda, and once again saw similar scenes. At one shopping mall I was in on the last day of our visit, there was a group of former street kids who had obviously been rescued from extreme poverty and a life of hopelessness, who had been trained to play brass instruments. Their brass band was now performing all the carols in the street, just as might happen in Yorkshire in the UK! Actually, they didn’t play badly, but I couldn’t help but ask the question: is this really what Christmas and the redemption of people’s lives is supposed to look like?

What I like about the Christmas story, is that people of all different sorts get caught up in it. So there is a faith community that it is right at the centre of it – devout people like Mary, Joseph, Simeon and Anna. Decent-living people, with genuine faith, who want to live God’s way, but find that the truth bursts in on them: God becomes part of their lives, and part of their community in the most amazingly close way. God bursts in!

Then there are the shepherds. They probably didn’t have any faith to speak of – perhaps some distant belief in God. They were rough and ready people, farm labourers. Not much vision beyond themselves and their own lives, probably relationships around them were a bit tangled, and what they definitely didn’t like was the religious community and their standoffishness. But God comes to them – dramatically. Angels opened their eyes to God breaking into their lives – and many of their lives were probably changed forever.

And then there were the so-called wise men (I hate those readings that start talking about the magi – does anyone understand who they are?). They are astrologers, academics – the “University Challenge” team. They see something that doesn’t fit. God doesn’t burst in in the same way as he does with the others we have mentioned. But they embark on a journey of “trying to work it out”. There’s a star that doesn’t fit, not everything can be explained away by previous theories or understandings of astral orbits. As far as we can tell, their journey takes months, although it gets telescoped in the way the Bible tells the story.

Some of us have grown up in a faith community; we have always believed in God. But God wants to come to us not just in a system of beliefs, but with a sense of coming into our lives in a personal, life-changing way. Some of us are intuitive people – we have some experience, an answer to prayer or a chance encounter with the supernatural, and suddenly, everything makes sense! There must be a God, and we believe in him. Some of us, on the other hand, are more reflective, logical beings; we need to be convinced, we need to try to work out what things mean. The Christmas story has each sort of person in it. And I am praying that God touches all different sorts of people in ways that are appropriate to them.

And then, going back to my encounters with the rather more superficial aspects of Christmas, of snow-scenes in Africa, for example, I hope that our faith is really genuinely worked out in the context in which we live. What does that mean? First of all, we need to understand that God does want to break into our lives supernaturally. The dimension beyond what we see or touch naturally, really does exist, and needs to be part of our understanding of the world we live in. Secondly, we need to see that God wants to break in with love, and with a liberating presence that changes the life of our world. Love changes everything. It changes how we feel about others and about ourselves. It changes our value-systems and our actions. It changes our care for the poor, and those on the margins of society. Christmas changes the very depths of our hearts, nature, being and actions. It is not superficial and trivial, like pictures of snow-scenes in Africa; but profound in its impact on all sorts of people.

As I think about our Salt & Light International family, I pray that we will all experience the profound impact of what it means that God has broken in to our world. And that wherever we live, we may not be impacted superficially, but profoundly. May knowing that God is with us change our hearts towards others powerfully, and may the presence of Christ come more powerfully wherever we are. And as I write, I pray that especially for people in the Philippines, seeking to recover from devastating floods and storms; and also for people in Christchurch, New Zealand, once again today suffering from tremors. May God break in to lives in these places with a sense of his love, compassion, presence and strength.