Christmas with Croydon Vineyard

In October the Sun newspaper ran a story about a sculpture that Ivergordon Town Council had been using to hold a shed door open. It discovered that the sculpture was in fact a rare marble bust of a Highland landowner that was worth nearly £3million.

And the same paper, this week, ran a story of a young couple who had received a message from the National Lottery telling them that they had a winning match for a £182million Euromillions jackpot, only to discover that their direct debit payment for the ticket had failed and they had actually won nothing.

The Sun's journalists are smart people. They realise that mis-judgements like these are tragic, exciting and compelling parts of human existence. Their stories make us want to go and look at what we've got in our cupboards; to have another check that we aren't unexpectedly missing out on life-transforming opportunities.

Jesus tapped into exactly this idea when he spoke of the treasure in a field that a farmer stumbled upon, of an unbelievably great pearl that a merchant discovered. His stories capture our imagination with the possibility that amid busy life and hard work, you can - sometimes - find something so amazing that it is worth giving up everything for. And they warn us of the utter dejection that you would feel if you went into that shop with the pearl but ended up spending your money on some of the other, pretty meaningless stuff.

For 2,000 years all kinds of people, with all kinds of histories, in all kinds of places have testified to the baby, born in a manger, being the greatest treasure they have ever stumbled across. Across every continent, more than 2 billion people have joyfully sold all they have for the incredible pearl that is having Jesus as their Saviour and King.

We want to urge you and encourage you this Christmas - why don't you have another look at your faith? We've got a whole load of events that we would love to welcome you at where we are totally committed to helping you do that. And even if we don't see you at any of them we want you to know that we are wishing you a truly merry Christmas, where you discover that the thing that you've always been wanting, has already come to you in swaddling clothes.

With much affection
Tom and Lesley

Taken from our latest “CV Invite” email - which can be read in full here https://mailchi.mp/5f0bc170083e/your-invitation-to-croydon-vineyards-christmas-events