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Dear Friends,
Christmas always brings visitors to our homes, either in person or by the good wishes we receive in our Christmas cards which call many different people to mind as we read them.
And as always the manse has been no different visitor wise both in person and in thought!
We have had several new visitors to the garden wishing to share the food which hangs from the trees and a few familiar faces returning!
The woodpecker is back and we can often spot him as a glint of red as he feeds from the feeders on the smaller trees before flitting past the window on his way to the taller ones at the rear of the garden, where he inevitably settles and pecks away at the bark with his familiar sound.
Most of the time all the birds are quite happy sharing the food that is there and there are very few squabbles in the garden.
However, with the advent of the snow we have had another two robins arrive in the garden to join the two which already frequent it.
It is these four which have given rise to all sorts of debate in the manse.
We know robins can be very territorial but even with all the food available around the garden they will all insist on trying to chase each other away! Cutting off your nose to spite your face springs to mind!
It is actually quite comical watching them as they devise ways of getting close to their adversaries before they move in to chase them away!
Isn't sharing what Christmas is supposed to be about! But the robins don't seem to have got the message!
Although another visitor to the manse certainly did! It was quite willing to share our living room - and having come down the chimney once in the night giving us both a huge fright -before being removed, we thought it would have got the message that Tawny owls are not supposed to share human living rooms!
However, it did not get the message and returned the next morning coming once more down the chimney to share our space again! The Tawny Owl was yet again removed safely and this time its means of entry barred so that it could no longer share our space!
(Frightening as it was to see it fly around the living room - it was a magnificent creature and I have to confess quite cute! Although I could not share the living room with it!)
Sharing it is what we think about a lot at Christmas!
The fact that in his great love for us God came to earth and shared our human existence and we in gratitude should be sharing that love around. In fact many of us will already have done just that symbolically in the giving of gifts to others at Christmas time!
Sometimes sharing is easy, sometimes it's not so easy but I trust as the New Year approaches that we will all find it easy to share God's love around and do our best to spread the good news that Jesus Christ has come to be with us.
May I personally thank you all for sharing your good wishes with Graham and I and for the many gifts of love we received this Christmas.
Wishing you all a blessed New Year,
Caryl
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