Last week I lost a key. It was a very small key and the carpet was one of those multicoloured, patterned ones – very good for hiding stains but very bad for finding lost keys. I looked everywhere but I could not see it. In the end I found it by getting down on my hands and knees and crawling around until at last I felt the cold metal with my hands.

It is the natural thing to do when you lose something, to get right down to its level. The same thing applies to us. When my little daughter loses her temper and lies there kicking the floor I find the best way to get through to her is to get down on to the floor myself. If I try to pontificate from six foot above I get nowhere. When I get down to her level she often stops crying and begins to listen.

That’s exactly what God did that very first Christmas. When he looked upon the human race with all its failings and injustices he did not pontificate from on high. He came down to earth from heaven. He who is God and Lord of all lived on earth with the poor and mean and lowly. He came down to our level in order to find us who were lost.

So when I am lost, and when the child in me wants to kick and scream, and when I feel little, weak and helpless, I thank God that he is not remote or judgemental, but he is with me, feeling for my sadness and, by his grace, sharing in my gladness.

A.R.T.