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Good morning. Today’s a Bank Holiday in Scotland, held over from Saturday the 2nd of January, and it’s the last chance for folk to enjoy the Christmas stalls and attractions that were set up here in Edinburgh’s Princes Street Gardens for the holiday period. They certainly made for a suitably festive scene, with their bright lights shining out on our dark winter nights, none more spectacularly than a terrifying-looking fairground whirligig, for want of a more technical term, that rises to 60 metres above ground level, almost as high as the Scott monument beside it, and spins round and round relentlessly. Watching from a safe distance and with my feet firmly on the ground, I couldn’t help wondering what makes people seek out that kind of rush – looking for ever bigger thrills even in a world where speed and brightness and busyness are difficult to escape. Ìý It’s hard to imagine the impact on the quiet life of rustic shepherds when the sky filled with angels, or on small communities when word spread about a strange star in the sky, and the arrival of a baby who would change everything.Ìý But that good news, brought by an angel, calmed the shepherds’ fears and glorified God.Ìý Despite all the glamour and distractions that surround us now, it can do the same for us two thousand years later.Ìý

Loving and Generous God, who sent your only son down to this anxious and troubled earth, may Christ the sun of righteousness shine in our hearts for ever, and raise us up to that light where you dwell in radiant glory. And in this new week and month and year, set our troubled hearts at rest and banish all our fears. AmenÌý