1 Corinthians 13 1. If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never ends.
With most young couples, the first baby to be born produces incredible feelings of love and tenderness, feelings which perhaps they never knew they had. So God's gift to his people of a new baby at Christmas was a master-stroke, for 2000 years later that baby still invokes feelings of affection and tenderness in many people. In our benefice this last Christmas, over 800 people attended church over Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Christmas still holds religious and spiritual meaning for many people, even though they may find difficulty in articulating quite why they feel the need to attend church. And even though others may rather contemptuously dismiss the emotions generated by Christmas as superficial sentimentality which has no depth or meaning.