By The Revd Canon Gordon Fyfe, Rector of St Columba’s Scottish Episcopal Church

December already! Where has this year gone? In many ways it has flown in; but maybe that is something more to do with age. Each year seems to be quicker than the one before!

Despite the swiftness of the passage of time, it would seem that many folk would want it to pass even more quickly; they can’t wait.

I saw my first Christmas tree in the window of a house in mid November! Since then, they’ve been springing up everywhere, together with twinkling lights, Christmas adverts and festive tunes playing in the shops.

This week is the first in a new season - not the Christmas season, but the Advent season. The word Advent means ‘arrival’ and traditionally has been a time of expectant waiting. None of us are, I suspect, are naturally keen on waiting. We would all rather avoid it. It can seem such a waste of time. Yet this time called ‘Advent’ is a gift to us all.

Rather than being swept along by the breakneck speed of life; Advent offers us the space we all need. We need space to reflect and to fully prepare, not just for Christmas, but for the truth it proclaims - that the one we eagerly expect is ‘God with us’.

Let us wait in hope that we might recognise him when he comes. Let us hasten our Lord’s coming among us by every good deed we perform and each kind and loving action we make.