by the Rev Fred Rich, of Riddlesden United Reformed Church and Trinity Church, Keighley

At Christmas most of us give and receive presents. In the words of Dr Sheldon Cooper (from the Big Bang Theory) we have created a social contract where we obligate someone else to buy us something that we don’t want that costs the same as what we have bought for them, that they don’t want either. In other words if I buy you a £5 pair of lurid purple, orange and green socks you will buy me a disgusting £5 brown and yellow tie. The true joys of Christmas, indeed!

However, I want to suggest that actually there are two much greater presents that we can all receive as we enter the New Year. In Jesus coming to earth, God has given us the most wonderful gifts imaginable. The first of these is the gift of His Son and the new life that He offers to everyone through Him. Jesus’s birth in Bethlehem about 2,000 years ago was only the start of what Jesus came to do. Christmas leads to Easter, and His death on the cross. Jesus paid the price for the wrongs that we did because no-one else could pay that price. Jesus’s birth brings us the opportunity for eternal life through faith in Jesus. The second gift is one that Christians think about at Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came and the church was born. When Jesus went to heaven He promised to send the Holy Spirit to comfort and empower His people. The Spirit came and now Jesus’s presence is always with those who put their faith in Him. At the start of this New Year know that you can receive these two wonderful gifts – eternal life through faith in Jesus and His presence within you every day as you echo the Christian prayer – ‘Come, Holy Spirit’.