What a joy to wish you all a peaceful Christmas. In this very unpeaceful world this seems almost a contradiction in terms. Christmases are not known for their peacefulness — rather for such things as family arguments; for those with money, excess and headaches; for those without, worry and anxiety.

All of this in a year where in world news we have seen Isis, Boko Haram and many other terrorist organisations play havoc with life around the globe, with tensions between superpowers over how to respond. The violence throughout the Middle East caused one of the largest immigration problems since the Second World War with the migrant crisis seeing displaced people streaming both around and across the Mediterranean with pictures of women and children pressed against chain link fences drowning on beaches.

Here in Bermuda, our stories are less dramatic. There have been some wonderful high points — on the sporting front and with the America’s Cup — but for many the trickle-down of the movement towards economic growth has yet to be felt and the anticipated construction jobs in the building industry have not yet materialised.

There are still too many deaths on the road or by misadventure. Debates rage over the nature of the family. And people are asking: where is God in all of this?

Many people living in the 1st-century Judea were asking this same question. The world of Caesar Augustus was a world of exploitation, greed, imperialism, racism, militarism and moral and spiritual confusion. Where and when would God come and act? In the latest Star Wars film, there is the rise of a new evil in the world and a hunt for the one who can save: the last Jedi, Luke Skywalker, full of “The Force”. It is a classic tale of the battle between good and evil, and all hopes are pinned on one man. Well, the real Christmas story is above all things a rescue story in the fight between good and evil. The hopes for the world are equally focused on one man, a saviour, filled with the Holy Spirit and power who comes to re-establish God’s reign. A great king was foretold. And he comes!

But how? Where?

In the world of politics and spin, they say optics count for so much. Unlike the birth of Princess Charlotte, fourth in line to the British throne who was born in an exclusive London hospital, God brings a poor labourer and his adolescent fiancée living in a middle eastern, subjugated country to an insignificant backwater town, a smelly stable as the delivery suite, and there Mary gives birth to God’s son, Jesus.

Not long after the birth they had to flee as refugees to Egypt as the despotic local ruler, Herod the Great, in a pique of paranoia, sought to kill any potential threat to his power.

The optics are that God came then and there, entering the world as one of the least of us but with the aim of saving the least to the greatest through his death and resurrection, infusing hope, faith and new birth into a situation that appeared bleak and hopeless and shrouded by death. At the time of his birth there was no Hello magazine to record the pictures, but there was a myriad of angels: the heavenly host who proclaimed those promised-filled words ‘Glory to God in the highest and, on earth, peace, good will among people!’

And the first people to hear were again a pretty ordinary and, arguably, Godless bunch of hardened shepherds, but in awe of what they saw that night they became worshippers whose hearts were filled with an almost supernatural joy as they found this child who would be king. And from then on this king has brought salvation and joy to countless millions around the world and throughout history — as he does today. This means that none of the things that make life so tough are bar to joy and peace to those who put their faith and trust in Jesus. So this is a time for us to pause and give thanks to God and to call out to him for us and for our families and society. When we look at our own children, they come into the world so frail, and yet so beautiful, so weak and yet so full of potential. We do not know what is going to happen to them and in this world it is hard to protect them. Mary and Joseph could not protect their son, Jesus — his was a lonely path towards a cross. But they provided the environment where this God child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom. Their faith and courage shines today and this holy family become the template and blueprint of what a family should be. It wasn’t that they were perfect, however, it was that their child being both human and divine was perfect and perfects all those who would later come to him. To know peace in our families and our society we need once more to put this Jesus back at the heart of our homes and to say: in God we trust.

Well, may you too be able to sing with the angels, Glory to God in the highest, peace and good will to his people on Earth. May the blessing of God rest upon you and upon your families now and always.