In these days of pause where nothing much seems to happen and no-one seems to take much notice anyway, politicians introduce policies that threaten fragile environments, reduce health benefits and cut back public transport. Policies and revisions of policies are quietly launched in the hope that no-one will notice.

Something else is running quietly in the background – the Christmas season that retailers consider finished on the eve of the day it began! On this fourth day of Christmas we are given the story of another launch pad. Some call it the New Testament Genesis and it’s in John 1:1-6:

 

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ²He was in the beginning with God. ³All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being ⁴in him was life,^* and the life was the light of all people. ⁵The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it…

Every story has a counter story. Our dominant consumer-leisure driven story is pushed back by the announcement that arrives on this fourth day of Christmas. Once again we hear of the pre-existent source of radiance and life that does not succumb to darkness, desperation or despair.

In the lazy days of nothing-much that mark the Christmas/New Year in-between, this counter-story pulls me onward.