Today’s beautiful poem-carol lays out three different reactions to the arrival of God. The earth is hard, unresponsive, cold and bleak; the heavens are ablaze with angels singing “Holy, Holy, Hallelujahs”; but the mother of God holds the baby and kisses him.

You don’t need to be high and holy to worship God, says Christina Rossetti. Be like Mary. Open your heart and love him.

The words in today’s reading are those spoken to John the Baptist when he was still in his mother’s womb proclaiming him the forerunner of Jesus.

As we read them at the dawn of a new year, let’s ponder how Christ himself is a new dawn for the world.

In our reading today Mary’s soul erupts into poetry as she looks to God her Saviour in preparation for the birth of Jesus.

As we sit on the cusp of a new year, we meet God who turns our world’s values upside down to reveal his light and love to all.

God’s glory is seen in a beautiful sunset or landscape. God’s glory is known in the transcendence of worship or the stillness of prayer.

God’s glory is revealed quietly and wonderfully in the birth of Jesus and the life of Jesus. God’s glory seen, fully, in a human being.

“Come and behold him.” Come and see. Take time to look, and reflect on all that Jesus is and offers. That’s the invitation in today’s carol.

In the reading from John’s Gospel there’s a promise. As we see, we trust. And as we trust, we receive. The gift God gives is love, now and eternally.

2020 has been a long and tough journey, and there are still many uncertainties as we go into next year.

Our reading for today comes from the opening of John’s Gospel. It reminds us that as we look back, we see God at the beginning of all things, and as we look forward we see a light that can never be put out.

Sometimes there’s a Christmas moment of calm: before guests arrive, or perhaps after they’ve left!

When the angels departed, the shepherds had their moment of calm, to pause and think, before going to Bethlehem to see the baby. In the busyness of Christmas, it’s good to stop and reflect, and maybe notice something you’ve not seen before.

Shepherds, on a dark hillside outside the sleeping town, were the first to hear the joyful news of the birth of Jesus.

A message of peace and joy for all, celebrated by a vast choir of angels and by carols in pubs and churches, homes and streets around the world.

Christmas is good news. After a tough year, Christmas brings comfort and joy to you and to a world that is weary and hurting.

The message of the baby born in Bethlehem is that God is in the mix. God does not stand far off, watching from a distance. God comes to us, walks with us and stays with us.

After the year we have all lived through, the light and hope symbolised in the Christingle is needed more than ever.

The question he asks us today, is the same as he asked in his lifetime; how are you preparing to celebrate the coming of Jesus?

Today’s reflection is written and read by Simon Thomas, author, podcaster, and ex-Blue Peter & Sky Sports presenter.

When Israel returned from exile in Babylon, it found the comfort of discovering its sins were no longer held against it, and the joy of knowing it was going home. Advent is about the slow realisation that for all the prisons others and ourselves put us in, God has the key. The name of that key is Jesus.

Today’s reflection is written and read by Sam Wells, Vicar of St Martin-in-the-Fields.

Taking inspiration from a traditional carol service, Comfort and Joy features weekly reflections throughout Advent, and daily reflections from Christmas day to the second of January, from Kate Bottley, Jonathan Bryan, Bob Chilcot, Martha Collison, Stephen Cottrell, Guli Francis-Dehqani, Chine McDonald, Sally Phillips and Justin Welby.

Beginning on Advent Sunday, each episode explores a Bible reading and a familiar carol, encouraging us to look with fresh eyes at how the timeless truth of Christmas might shape our lives in these extraordinary times.