Change by degrees

Huw Williams | 19:48, Saturday 14 December 2013 | Turin, Italy

On the way to the office today, I was stopped by a little old lady asking for directions. For the first time in a conversation with a stranger since we moved here, I understood every word she said, and moreover, I was confident enough to be able to give her the directions she needed. I don't imagine for a moment that my Italian was perfect, but it was good enough for her understand what I was trying to say and she seemed very pleased with the information I was passing on. She had no idea what a momentous occasion she had just taken part in.

The other day I was reflecting on the last year here in ICT and trying to assess what has gone well, and where we can improve and grow. We haven't seen massive changes in the church - at least not the kind that you would notice week-by-week - but when I look around, I see little green shoots coming up here and there; an individual who seems to have grown substantially in the last twelve months, another who seems far more excited by reading the Bible than they were a year ago, someone who has got far more involved in the fellowship than they were before, another who keeps bringing different friends to hear the good news Sunday by Sunday.

We need that perspective sometimes, it seems. The temptation is to get discouraged when one doesn't see change occurring in staggering steps, but sometimes transformation can change by degrees and can run just as deep.

I've been preparing my message for Sunday on the visit of the Magi in Matthew 2 all week. They must have been surprised to find Jerusalem ignorant of, and decidedly unenthusiastic about the birth of "the one who has been born king of the Jews" - and much more to find him in less than royal circumstances in Bethlehem! - but it didn't stop them rejoicing in, and worshiping God's Son who arrived so discreetly, quietly, and yet who would turn the world upside down in God's own good time.