Fear

The day was sunny and warm, the grass fresh, birds circled overhead, and far up a long slope cows grazed in the field. The perfect time and perfect place to walk my two dogs, Mac and Ciara.[1] Mac was far behind, doggedly pursuing every smell in the hedgerows, but Ciara was keeping close to me.

A herd of cows was huddled towards a clump of trees. I glanced in their direction, and saw the largest cow toss his head violently, then start running down the hill. Other cows fell in behind him. In seconds the whole herd was racing towards me.

I thought nothing of it. I’d walked through fields beside and among benign cows since I was a child. I never did anything to upset those cows, and they stared but never bothered me. Not that day. Something had agitated the leader of the herd, and now he was leading a charge straight for me as fast as cows could run. I still didn’t feel concerned. They’d soon stop. They didn’t. I retreated to the edge of the field, which put me against a barbed wire fence with no time to climb over. Surely my dogs would save me. Well, not Mac, still busy sniffing hundreds of yards away. So, Ciara then. No, not Ciara either. I glanced down and she was cowering behind my legs, terrified by the herd thundering towards us.

Those cows had to stop. They must stop. Stomping, snorting, they galloped down the slope, closing in on one man and his dog. They were not going to stop. With no way to escape or power to resist them, I was about to be crushed under their hooves. Then – when the charging cows were literally no more than 10 feet (3 metres) away – like a traffic cop, I shot my right arm forward, palm facing the cows, and very loudly roared STOP! Instantly, the charge ended. Hooves dug into the grass, heads tilted backwards and each cow juddered to a halt.

Sudden stillness. I looked at them, and 12 breathless but still adrenaline fuelled cows looked at me. The lead cow, still angry but now motionless, stood in the centre, the others on each side of him. I didn’t move. The cows didn’t move. I was scared to take a step in case I revived their man-trampling ambitions. But every staring match, including cow versus man, has to end. Slowly, heart thumping, I edged a little to my right. Then a full step. The bovine semi-circle was near complete, leaving little space for me to squeeze between the end cow and the fence. But, with Ciara held tightly by her lead, I made my way quietly past all of them. I didn’t run, just kept going. With me gone, gradually the herd dispersed, and Mac returned. I’m sure he was thinking ‘Did anything interesting happen while I was away…?’ Yes, my friend, we nearly died.

When those cows charged down the hill and I realised they were coming for me, I was terrified. In any situation when you believe you could be seriously hurt, possibly killed, it’s impossible not to be very, very frightened.

In this blog post I’ll share a few points about fear. But fear takes many forms, and people react to frightening situations in very different ways. What makes you afraid may not trouble someone else. And how you might cope with your fear may not at all be how someone else copes.

In a single post (and with limited wisdom) I cannot write comprehensively about fear. But I can share a few obvious truths. I hope they will be helpful.

And, for my amusement and hopefully yours, I’ve put photos of cows I’ve met on the same hill but at other times. Some look fierce; thankfully the majority were not.

One extra note: I know that these ‘cows’ are all bullocks. But Occasionally Wise is read in countries all around the world, including some which likely don’t use the word ‘bullock’ so, inaccurately I realise, I’ve used the word cows. My apologies to bullocks everywhere!

1. Fear is not always bad – in fact, sometimes very necessary

      There is no question that my fear of stampeding cows was entirely reasonable. Cows rarely attack people, but if they do they could inflict serious harm. So, not only was it understandable that I was afraid, it was necessary. I couldn’t just stand still waiting to be knocked to the ground and likely trampled. I had to do something. Thankfully that ‘something’ worked.

      Fear is often a useful primal emotion, similar to the warning pain gives us. Pain makes us recoil from a flame, or pull back when we’re being hurt by thorns. People who do not feel pain – suffering from the rare genetic disorder called ‘congenital insensitivity to pain’ (CIP), or ‘congenital analgesia’ – are at risk.[2] Children with analgesia can bite off parts of their tongue; hikers may break an ankle bone and then inflict further damage because they keep walking. An inability to feel pain is more of a curse than a blessing. Failure to feel fear is similar. We taught our children to be afraid when near a cliff edge, not to be brave about walking home alone late at night, and to realise the danger if they did not fasten their car safety belts.

      Of course there is a risk of exaggerating danger. Gary, with his wife and children, were visiting for a day, so, after lunch, Gary and I took the children to a play area  where there were swings made out of tyres, logs to walk along, slides, and small playhouses accessed by climbing up short ladders, and so on. My children rushed ahead and clambered over everything. Gary’s children held back. Dad had to be present. Once Gary was, they were allowed to climb slowly, but only when Gary was holding on to them. The same happened with the slide; Dad had to have a tight grip on their hands. The swings were almost fine but Gary had to be right beside them. The builders of that playground had installed soft matting underfoot to cushion any fall, and none of the ‘apparatus’ was high off the ground. But Gary had instilled so much fear of accidents in his children they simply couldn’t play there like other kids. Fear is a natural, healthy emotion, warning us of possible danger, but it will paralyse us if it controls us excessively.

      2. Some fears are needless

      I had to fetch a tool from the far end of our garden. I took two steps, and stopped because of the thought: “I’ve left my phone in the house. What if something happens to me and I can’t call for help?” I could trip and break a leg. Or suddenly have a heart attack. Thankfully, common sense returned quickly. My journey out would take 30 seconds, as would my journey back. What were the odds of a catastrophe during a one minute journey to collect a garden tool? Very, very slim. Besides, when we first moved into our house, many years previous, I didn’t have a mobile phone. It didn’t bother me then about walking down that garden phone-less. So, bereft of any phone, I fetched the tool and returned safely. There was no need to fear that something dreadful would happen when my phone was not with me. Sometimes we should tell ourselves that if we were meant to have mobile phones with us always, God would have had us born with an extra umbilical cord attached to a phone.

      There are also some things we should fear but only a little. Suppose I go out without an umbrella and it rains. Well, I get wet, but I won’t drown. Or, I might be five minutes late for meeting a friend. But they’ll wait. They’re not much of a friend if a five minute delay is a disaster. Or, if the meal we’re preparing for guests is not one hundred per cent perfect. Well, no meals are one hundred per cent; almost certainly my guests won’t know the meal isn’t one hundred per cent right; and the only thing actually important is that they enjoy their time with us. Many things we are fearful about are not worth our anxiety. Relax. Keep a sense of proportion about what truly matters.

      3. Many things we fear are very unlikely to occur

      Should I avoid walking in open spaces in case debris from a meteorite shower kills me? After all, one person was killed that way. Yes, one person was, but that was in 1888 (according to National Geographic). Apparently no-one else has ever died because of meteor debris, and, when we see meteor showers we’re seeing tiny pebbles or specks the size of grains of sand which burn up in the atmosphere.

      Okay, so we shouldn’t fear death by meteor. But I know many who are afraid of spiders. Why? In the UK, where I live, there are no native spiders that can cause death to humans. In some countries there are a few spider species which are dangerous, most notably the Sydney Funnel-web spider found in eastern parts of Australia. Its bite can cause serious illness or death, but, even then, few if any deaths have occurred since antivenom was available from 1980. In general, spiders have no reason to attack humans; if a spider bites you it’s because it’s defending itself.

      Well, what about mice? Some people climb on desks or stand on chairs if there’s any suspicion that a mouse is on the loose. Why do that? Mice are tiny and we are not, so who would win if you engaged in head to head warfare with a mouse? It’s understandable that we don’t like tiny creatures scurrying around, especially if they eat our food. But not liking need not be fearing.

      It’s unfortunately true that we are frightened even when the chances of a seriously bad event are very slight. Or when we are confronted by something which can do us little or no harm. Another time to keep a sense of perspective.

      4. Overcoming deep rooted fears takes time and effort

      Frances suffered from ‘arachnophobia’ – an intense, irrational fear of spiders, affecting about 3% to 5% of the population.[3] Many people dislike spiders but, for Frances, even thinking about spiders could trigger a panic attack. Her heart rate would soar and she’d feel sick and dizzy. Her fear was so intense she struggled to enter any building where there might be spiders. Visiting countries with larger and stranger spiders was impossible for Frances.

      So she found a therapist who listened carefully while Frances described her fear. Then he told her to buy a book with large photos of spiders and bring it to their next session. Frances visited a large bookshop, and explained to the assistant what she wanted. He pointed her towards a shelf which had such a book. “I can’t take pick it up,” Frances said. The assistant realised she was serious, and fetched the book for her. “Please wrap it in several bags,” Frances asked, He did and held it out for her to take. “Sorry, I can’t hold it; please just drop it into my shopping bag.”

      It never came out of Frances’s bag before her next therapy session. Her counsellor put the book on the opposite side of the room and asked Frances to walk towards it. She could not get closer than several yards . At later sessions she gradually got nearer and nearer, and eventually managed to pick up the book. Two weeks later, she was able to look at the photos of spiders, and finally actually touch the spider photos. All of that took a long time and great determination. Mostly it worked. Frances was never comfortable around spiders, but she coped with them. Her intense fear was gone; she could lead a normal life and even travel abroad.

      We may never have such a dramatic fear of anything, but milder forms are common. My wife Alison and I had to deal with a mouse-in-the-house problem recently. Actually, more than one mouse. After hearing scratching, we reckoned at least two rodent residents were behind a panel of wood we could remove. As we prised it off, we held our breath. We were nervous. Why? Why is anyone frightened of tiny creatures? One or two little mice do not amount to an army. They could do nothing which could hurt us directly. As the panel came away we held our breath… And nothing. There were signs mice had been there, but they’d run off. We didn’t invite them back by blocking off their point of entry. Mouse problem solved. But it was strange how nervous, probably afraid, we’d felt. That may always be true. We are certainly not planning on welcoming more mice as house guests; just accepting that we’ll always be a little fearful of them coming back.

      5. What is not happening to us can still make us afraid

      One of the most competent and sensible women I’ve known told me she never watched or listened to news bulletins. Nor did she read newspapers. “They make me afraid, even depressed,” she said. “There’s so much that’s bad happening in the world,” Of course there is an abundance of accidents, murders, unrest, wars and rumours of wars. But none of those were happening anywhere near that young woman.

      It is worth remembering that news reports don’t reflect how the world is most of the time and in most places. When I was being trained as a journalist, I recall the maxim: “Dog bites man is not newsworthy; man bites dog is newsworthy.” In other words, what makes headlines is the unusual and the uncommon.

      I’m not suggesting we shrug off terrible events, wherever they occur, but it’s important not to have our lives controlled by fear of being caught up in them.

      We can be so bombarded by stories of stranger-danger – such as attacks on little children by bad people lurking in dark corners – we imagine our neighbourhood is filled with malicious assailants. Your local crime statistics may not support that, but in the UK, more than 90 per cent of sexual assaults, including rapes, are not committed by strangers but by people known to the victim. A higher percentage of other forms of violent attacks are committed by strangers, but 56 per cent are people known to the person assaulted. Since attacks by close associates, especially family members, are often under-reported, that may exaggerate the impression that the greatest danger is stranger-attacks.

      I have no wish to minimise the potential for harm in the world around us. But how we view the world and absorb information can amplify the risk. Shock headlines on news stories are unhelpful. Social media often does not help, and the same is true of local gossip about so-and-so being knocked to the ground by someone stealing their handbag. Be careful, but try not to be afraid of everything in the world around you.

      6. The more uncertain we are about what’s happening or what we might have to do, the more fearful we get.

      During an immense thunder and lightning storm I hugged one of our children as massive explosions of noise and flashes of light shot across the sky. To a child less than two  years old it was terrifying. Why wasn’t I afraid? Well, for one thing we were indoors. For another I’d experienced storms like that before and come to no harm. And, lastly, I knew what caused the storm and that it would soon pass. In other words, I understood what was happening in a way our young child could not. Fear is heightened by what we don’t understand.

      Similarly, it can be very frightening to be in a situation where you don’t know what to do, or where to go, or what’s expected of you. I’ve often felt anxious like that, especially in a country where I couldn’t speak or understand the language. I flew into Karachi on my first-ever visit to Pakistan or any Asian country. As I headed towards a different section of the airport for a connecting flight, my suitcase was pulled from my hand and a young man walked off briskly. For a moment I panicked. But my bag wasn’t being stolen. The man gestured me to follow. We got to the other section of the airport. He released my case and held out his hand. Of course, he now wanted payment for his baggage carrying service. I handed over some dollars, and he went off smiling. I had not been smiling when I saw a stranger going off with my luggage. I had been afraid because I hadn’t understood what was happening. (Ever since, I’ve kept a firm grip on the handle of my baggage.)

      There are other forms of uncertainty. Several times I’ve been delayed or lost while on my way to a speaking engagement, with no phone number to call and explain I was late but still coming. And I’ve sat in meetings wondering if there’s something I should have done in preparation, or would be required to speak about during the meeting but no-one had pre-warned me.

      But I’ve learned these key thoughts for those times:

      • This is not a disaster. I will survive this.
      • I can’t fix this now, but it will be sorted soon.
      • If no-one told me what I would need to do, that’s not my fault.
      • A time is coming when I’ll look back on this situation, and probably smile about it.

      Uncertainty is a common human feeling. It unsettles us. But, instead of being fearful, we can treat our uncertainty as a puzzle that will eventually be solved. And the world and our lives will be just fine.

      7. We are fearful when we’re unprepared

      In my school days I remember asking fellow students how they felt about the exam we were all about to take. “Pretty confident,” some said. “I’m sure I’ll do well.” I never felt like that. Not once. Usually I was mildly terrified. Sometimes that was simply an unnecessary lack of confidence. But, at other times, I simply hadn’t studied enough. I hadn’t re-read the course materials, or planned how I’d write about key issues. Being unprepared creates fear of under-performance.

      That’s true in several contexts. If we’ve invited guests for a meal and we’re running out of time with preparations, our heart rate increases. The same happens if we’ve a flight to catch and we still haven’t packed our suitcase. If we’re facing an interview and hardly know what the job is about. If we’re invited to an event, and at the last minute realise we don’t have the right clothes to wear.

      One of my more dramatic unpreparedness experiences occurred when my rather beat-up old car was due that day for its roadworthiness check (in the UK, that’s referred to as the MOT test). My appointment with a testing centre was at 10.00, and the car wasn’t ready. It was spectacularly not ready. I had been respraying the car’s bodywork and welding the sills. That work was all fine. But then I’d decided I should repaint the inside floor of the car, which meant taking out every seat to access the floor pan. It was all done by the day before the car’s test. Only then did I realise the paint would not dry for several hours. I had to leave the car with no seats in place overnight. Next morning – the day of the test – it took me longer than expected just to re-install the driver’s seat. There was no time for any more. So I took the car for its 10.00 test with no seats other than the one in which I sat. I handed the car over to the tester, and explained what had happened. He looked into the car, raised his eyebrows, and drily said, “Well, you’re certainly not hiding anything.” It turned out that having seats in the car wasn’t an essential element for the test, so my car passed. But it took a long time until I recovered. Being unprepared – as I was – is a self-created cause of fear.

      Peaceful, content cows. My favourite kind.

      In this blog post I’ve tried to identify certain kinds of everyday fear. (The kind of fear experienced in warfare is very different.) I’m aware that fear takes many other forms, and that fear as a subject is complex. But to write in more detail would take me even further away from my expertise. If nothing else, I hope you go through life meeting only friendly cows.

      [1] Mac died a few years after the event described here. I wrote about his passing at the time: https://occasionallywise.com/2025/12/13/mac-has-died/

      [2] More information on the condition can be found here: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK481553/

      [3] Here is a useful description of arachnophobia: “People with arachnophobia tend to feel uneasy in any area they believe could harbour spiders or that has visible signs of their presence, such as webs. If arachnophobes see a spider, they may not enter the general vicinity until they have overcome the panic attack that is often associated with their phobia. Some people scream, cry, have emotional outbursts, experience trouble breathing, sweat and experience increased heart rates when they come in contact with an area near spiders or their webs. In some extreme cases, even a picture, a toy, or a realistic drawing of a spider can trigger intense fear.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arachnophobia

      The hardest thing about making a decision is making a decision

      A nearby church asked me to provide leadership and guidance to cover the time between one minister leaving and another being appointed. I agreed. The workload would be minimal – preach occasionally, conduct funerals and weddings, and chair the once a month leadership meetings.

      The date came for their leaders to meet. I was handed an agenda, and after preliminaries we got to ‘Matters arising from the minutes of the last meeting’, and there I read ‘First Aid Kit’. Three so simple words but, it turned out, not at all a simple matter.

      “So, what is the issue about a first aid kit?” I asked. “Well,” I was told, “we’ve been discussing whether to buy a first aid kit.” This seemed a ‘no-brainer’ to me, but it became clear there were a whole variety of opinions about a first aid kit among the leaders. After hearing those opinions for half an hour, I forced a vote, and a majority agreed the church should have a first aid kit. Relieved, I sighed “I’m glad that’s over.”

      It wasn’t over. Next meeting, under ‘Matters arising…’ was once again the subject of the ‘First Aid Kit’. “We decided that,” I said. “Yes,” came the reply, “but we didn’t decide which first aid kit.” I groaned. But, with relish, the leaders debated exactly what should be in a first aid kit. Again I tolerated this for 30 minutes, and then resorted to the favourite church way of handling awkward issues by appointing a committee to research first aid kits.

      Next month, next agenda, and the three words I’d grown to hate appeared again: First Aid Kit. Thankfully the committee had researched, and now reported that First Aid Kit Number 2, as sold by a major pharmacy chain, would be perfect. Great. Matter resolved.

      Matter not resolved. Next meeting’s agenda: First Aid Kit. “Surely we decided this…”. Not really, it seemed. “Yes, we decided which first aid kit, but we didn’t decide who would buy it.” Really? Yet more discussion, in which my only achievements were to get them to agree who would buy it, and to take only 15 minutes to make that decision. At last the subject of the first aid kit was finished. No, of course it wasn’t. Month after month, meeting after meeting, First Aid Kit was the monster that ate our discussion time. A First Aid Kit was always on the agenda, but never on the premises. Why not? Many more reasons:

      • “We didn’t decide where it should be kept”
      • “We didn’t discuss whether a first aid kit cupboard should be labelled First Aid Kit Cupboard”
      • “We didn’t determine who would be authorised to administer first aid”
      • “We didn’t explore whether our church insurance covered liability for providing people with medical help”
      • “We didn’t choose who would maintain the contents of the first aid kit”

      There were more reasons than those, but some psychologists believe the brain can repress traumatic memories, and over the years my brain has taken pity on me by hiding the rest of that saga. All I’m sure of is that the church got a new minister before they ever got a first aid kit.

      Those painful discussions were my worst ever experience of ‘how to not make a decision’. The story may make us smile, but we may also have experience of finding the hardest thing about making a decision is actually making a decision. By that I mean a final decision, and, hardest of all, a final decision about something that matters to us.

      But why do we find it so hard to make decisions? The simple answer is that people are unique – all different in our thinking, habits, and preferences – so what I would struggle to decide might seem straightforward to you. What attracts me, what frightens me, what confuses me, what is sensitive for me, none of these may be the same for you. Add to that how people and circumstances around us affect our decision-making. A 17-year-old told me she wanted to get married to get away from her parents. But another person, well through her thirties, kept putting off a wedding in hope that her parents would accept the man in her life. There is no single reason why we struggle to make decisions.

      However, accepting many factors are involved, I’ve compiled a list of five common reasons why decisions get delayed or never happen.

      When we’re comfortable with things as they are – so don’t want change    Even when offered a wonderful new opportunity, the person happy with their life is super-slow to make any decision which will disturb their comfort. And there could be good reasons not to change, such as children settled in school, or because moving away might ruin a spouse’s career, or poor health could mean it’s wise to stay where the best treatment is available. But, for others, the reasons for resisting change are not so clear. That happens, for example, when someone feels safe in their present situation, while what the future holds seems risky. So, they think… and think… and think but never actually decide to change. (I wrote about how I had that exact experience when I was ten years old – see https://occasionallywise.com/2021/01/09/going-out-on-a-limb/)

      When something is so good, we can’t imagine it ending    I feel like that when I don’t want an exciting book to end. Occasionally I’ve enjoyed a film so much I’m sad when the titles roll. Or a holiday is so wonderful we can’t contemplate going home. Or work is so satisfying we can’t imagine doing anything else.  We have the ‘don’t let it end’ reaction anytime we don’t want an activity, event, or relationship to come to a finish.

      I wrote before about the retirement of an elderly journalist. He’d worked in the office for 40 years. The next working day after his retirement he was back in the office, and the next day, and the next, and the next and so on. He’d loved his work, and simply couldn’t let it end. (You can read that story here: https://occasionallywise.com/2025/03/29/keep-on-keeping-on/)

      The more we love anything, the harder it is to let it go. Yet that puts us in a kind of prison cell. We could open the door and walk free but we choose to stay. So no matter how wonderful what lies ahead, we never experience it because we can’t let go of what we have already.

      When we fear what others will think    Some decisions are unpopular. And the more we care about what people think about us and our choices the less able we are to make a hard decision. Even easy decisions become tough when we fear other people’s opinions. Here are both big and small decisions people can find hard to make.

      • Creating a radical new look with a hairstyle change
      • Dating the boy of her dreams, knowing he’s the boy of her parents’ nightmares
      • Telling family you’ve got a new job which will take you far away
      • Not wanting to follow your parents’ career ambitions for you; pursuing acting instead
      • Deciding to adopt religious beliefs different from those taught to you by your parents
      • Choosing not to have the lavish white wedding with lots of guests your parents always dreamed for you

      Here are three examples of making unpopular decisions, two of them very personal.

      First, the teenage girl, aged 14, who chose to go to school wearing the school uniform. But surely she was just conforming? Actually, she wasn’t. The uniform was optional, and not a single other girl in the school wore the uniform. I suspect the girl who wore the uniform loved to stand out from the crowd, but she was mocked for doing so.

      Second, Alison and I have four children. After the first two, a boy and then a girl, people said “You have the perfect family. You’ll be done having children now.” We weren’t done. When number three was on the way, some reacted with “Really! This one must have been an accident” or “How could you bring another child into the world?” So, when we decided to have our fourth – and it was a positive decision – we knew what we would face. Most did not congratulate us. There were looks of horror on some faces. “Oh no!” said at least two close relatives. Some suggested that we were irresponsible. Some believed we’d done something morally wrong. Some said they were worried for us. And the midwife at a prenatal clinic assumed we could be having a fourth only because we didn’t understand contraception. Many comments were ridiculous, but some really hurt. Thankfully we were undaunted. We were thrilled about having each of our four children. And then we decided our family was complete. Matters like that are personal and no-one else’s business.

      Third, I accepted the appointment of heading up a large mission agency. That would mean relocating from the north east of Scotland to the south of England. I was worried what that would mean for my Dad. Mum had died many years before, and Dad had eventually remarried but his second wife had also passed away. Now, although he had golfing buddies, he lived alone. His home was 100 miles from our north east location, but I visited him almost every week. The move south, however, meant I’d be seven hours travelling time from him. Visits would be far less frequent. It was tough telling him we were moving away, and it was obvious he was sad. But Dad was a hero. Firmly and bravely, he said “I would never want to hold you back from doing what is right for your career.” We went with his blessing. And, to our surprise, Dad in his mid 70s made arrangements to get flights from Edinburgh to London so he could visit us. That amazed us because Dad had never been on a plane before. Not ever. But he booked his flights and boarded planes just so he could see us. Which was great.

      When you know a decision is right but you’re fearful about the consequences    Accepting a promotion often comes with nervousness.It’s wonderful to move up the career ladder, and who doesn’t want a higher salary? But with that new position comes greater responsibility, and that can be daunting. Questions flood the mind like “What if I don’t have the skills?” or “What if I can’t manage a team” or “What if they fire me after a few weeks?” I used to encourage newly promoted staff by saying “You don’t have this new position because of what I hope you’ll be able to do one day, but because of what I’ve already seen you are able to do.” Sometimes I had more confidence in a promoted staff member’s abilities than they had. But, despite their fear of consequences, they accepted the promotion and ended up flourishing in their new challenge.

      When we can’t decide a project or task is complete    When I was only a few months into my PhD research, one of the older and well-respected faculty members took me aside. “Alistair,” he said “never be afraid to bring each part of your thesis to an end. Some people never finish their degree because they can’t accept their work is good enough.” That elderly scholar spoke the truth. I resisted the temptation to always add another nugget of wisdom or quote from yet one more source. And my thesis was accepted. But one friend – a brilliant scholar – almost never got his PhD because he couldn’t let any chapter go unless he considered it perfect. After 13 years, far longer than the university’s rules allowed anyone, he was told ‘Submit, or you fail’. Thankfully he handed over his manuscript, and it was accepted. But other students – no matter the pressure – still won’t submit their less-than-perfect work, which means that after years of hard study they never get their degree. There are times when ‘good enough’ is truly ‘good enough’ and we must have the courage to stop.

      I now need to stop. But I will finish by including a statement I came across when studying management. In the context of advice on how to reach the right decision came these words: “Of course the worst decision of all is not to make any decision.” A non-decision is, indeed, a terrible decision.

      ———————————-

      Several times I’ve written about decision-making. Here are links to some of those posts:

      Going out on a limb
      Keep on keeping on
      This way or that way?
      How do we make our biggest decisions?
      Why quit while you’re ahead?
      Procrastination

      Christmas Quiz – part 3

      Welcome to the third and last section of the Christmas Quiz I used during a recent church service.

      Many have followed the earlier parts of this quiz. In the last few days there have been readers from 20 nations, including the United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Cambodia, Bangladesh, Finland, Laos, Moldova, Venezuela, Vietnam, Japan, Hong Kong, USA and the UK. I am delighted people from all these countries and cultures find something useful here.

      If this is your first encounter with the Christmas Quiz, you would enjoy beginning with the first two parts. Here’s where to find them:

      Christmas Quiz part 1
      Christmas Quiz part 2

      As well as the quizzes, you’ll discover how each one has three parts: 1) the quiz; 2) the answers; 3) a personal reflection. The reflections were the challenge I brought to the church congregation, and it would be wrong to omit them here.

      Lastly before we start, avid readers of Occasionally Wise may have an advantage for this third quiz, because I wrote about some of the same subjects in Christmas Miscellany (https://occasionallywise.com/2024/12/21/christmas-miscellany/). But, this time, I’ve added a lot of extra information. You’ll enjoy what you read here!

      Part 1  Christmas celebrations

      Q1  What percentage of people in the UK say they will attend church on Christmas Day?

      1. 6%
      2. 16%
      3. 26%

      Q2  Looking back in history, who was most influential in promoting the Christmas tree tradition?

      1. Ancient pagans, such as Druids
      2. Martin Luther, around 1536
      3. Queen Charlotte, German wife of King George III, in the late 1700s and early 1800s
      4. Queen Victoria and her husband Prince Albert, from the 1840s

      Q3  In 1848 Cecil Frances Alexander wrote ‘Once in Royal David’s City’ as a children’s hymn. Which of these other hymns did she write?

      1. ‘There is a green hill far away’.
      2.  ‘All things bright and beautiful’. 
      3. ‘Away in a manger’

      Q4  In Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, people think little elf-like creatures bring presents on Christmas Eve. What food do children leave out for them to eat – to thank them and help them on their way?

      1. Sausages
      2. Porridge
      3. Cakes

      Q5  Mince pies were being enjoyed 800 years ago. Back then what were their main ingredients?

      1. Meat
      2. Dried fruit
      3. Spices

      Q6  In the UK, how many mince pies are sold in the run-up to Christmas?

      1. 80,000
      2. 800,000
      3. 800,000,000

      Q7  Mince pies have had various shapes over the years. Back in medieval times what shape were they?

      1. Round
      2. Star
      3. Rectangular

      Part 2  Answers to Quiz 3 questions

      Question 1 asks what percentage of people surveyed in the UK say they will attend church on Christmas Day. Maybe the most important words in the question are “say they will attend”. That tells you the survey was done before Christmas. If the survey had been done after Christmas and asked how many had actually gone to church on Christmas Day, the numbers would surely have been smaller. Intentions do not always lead to actions. True for all of us.

      The right answer – from that survey – is 16%. That may not seem many, but 16% is close to 1 in 6 of the population. I live in the UK and I’m sure that 1 in 6 of those who live near me do not attend church on any day, including Christmas Day! Maybe my affluent neighbours in Oxfordshire are sucked into feasting and present-giving/receiving at Christmas.

      The survey not only compared planned attendances at church between the USA, UK, and Germany, but also how many intended to go to the pub. Two things may have skewed answers to the pub question. First, maybe other countries are different, but many pubs in the UK do not open on Christmas Day. Second, there is something wonderful about being in church at Christmas but nothing particularly special happens in the pub on Christmas Day. And nipping off to the pub when you’ve got famly duties at home could have serious consequences!

      Nevertheless, it’s interesting to note from the survey that in all three countries, church wins over pub. At least that’s what they told the pollsters.

      Question 2 asks who was most influential in promoting the Christmas tree tradition. Once again it’s important to think carefully about the wording of the question.

      First, let’s take pagans and Druids of ancient times out of the picture. They did gather branches of evergreen trees to ward off evil spirits. Why those branches? Precisely because they were evergreen – they never seemed to die which, they believed, meant those who gathered them would also never die. But pagans are not behind our Christmas tree tradition. They weren’t interested in promoting their traditions, and Christians were never much interested in adopting them.

      What about Martin Luther, the reformer of the church in the 1500s? The story goes that he was walking home on a cold, clear winter night, and felt overwhelmed by the remarkable display of  bright stars overhead. He erected an evergreen tree in his home, and fastened lighted candles to its branches, intending to recapture something of the beauty he had seen in the sky outside. The result was Impressive, and Germany did develop an early custom with similar trees, but Luther’s tree did not inspire a world-wide movement.

      Now, if the question had asked who first introduced the Christmas tree tradition to Britain, then Queen Charlotte would be a great answer. She grew up in the German duchy of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, where it was customary at Christmas to lay out a single yew branch, to which were attached wax tapers that could be lit. Presents would be placed under the branch.

      Queen Charlotte, Benjamin West, 1777. Yale Center for British Art. Public Domain.

      Charlotte came to Britain in 1761 to marry King George. She soon established the yew branch tradition in her new home, but that was only for her family with some court members joining them to sing carols. But the tradition got a significant upgrade in 1800 when Queen Charlotte set up a Christmas tree at Queen’s Lodge, Windsor, and that is reckoned to be the first ever Christmas tree in the UK. Charlotte decorated the tree with tinsel, glass, ornaments and fruits, and brought local children in for a party. John Watkins attended the party and later wrote a biography of Queen Charlotte in which he described the branches of the tree from which “hung bunches of sweetmeats, almonds and raisins in papers, fruits and toys, most tastefully arranged; the whole illuminated by small wax candles. After the company had walked round and admired the tree, each child obtained a portion of the sweets it bore, together with a toy, and then all returned home quite delighted.”[1] I am sure they did.

      Erecting Christmas trees began to catch on among the nobility, and in some of the colonies. But by far the biggest boost for the tradition came several decades later. Note that the question asked who was most influential in promoting the Christmas tree tradition, and the correct answer is Queen Victoria and her husband Prince Albert.

      Victoria and Albert had both enjoyed Christmas trees during their childhood. They married in 1840, and Christmas trees soon appeared around Windsor Castle. Then Prince Albert did something in 1848 which massively spread the tradition. He allowed a front cover painting to appear in The Illustrated London News showing the main tree covered in decorations and surrounded by the Royal Family.[2] Other publications – in the UK and many other countries, especially the United States – reproduced the painting and followed up on the story. The publicity had a massive influence on Christmas customs, and by 1860 almost every well-off family in Britain and Ireland had a Christmas tree in their home. Royal fever had done its work.

      Early publication of the first two verses of “Away in a Manger” from the “Christian Cynosure” newspaper of March 2nd 1882. Public Domain

      Question 3 asks about hymns possibly written by Cecil Frances Alexander in addition to her famous carol ‘Once in Royal David’s City’. I listed three. When I posed this question to the church congregation, a large number chose a wrong answer: ‘Away in a manger’. Though that carol is hugely popular, its authorship is unknown. The first two verses appeared in various American publications in the 1880s, typically attributing the hymn to Martin Luther. The third verse which begins ‘Be near me, Lord Jesus’ first appeared in 1892 in Gabriel’s Vineyard Songs. But, even without the extra stanza, what was being called “Luther’s Cradle Song” was being sung widely in America. There is no evidence of a version dating from Martin Luther’s time, but attributing the hymn to him probably helped spread its popularity. Luther and his wife Katie had 6 children as well as raising 8 orphaned nieces and nephews. It must have been difficult to lull them all to sleep, but it wasn’t done by singing ‘Away in a Manger’.

      Cecil Frances Alexander Public Domain

      So, which of the other two hymns were written by Cecil Frances Alexander? The correct answer is that she’s the author of both ‘There is a green hill far away’ and ‘All things bright and beautiful’. These two, and ‘Once in Royal David’s City’ first appeared in Alexander’s Hymns for Little Children in1848. The simple style and structure of all three will have been a major reason they became so popular.

      Cecil married an Anglican clergyman who later became Bishop of Derry and Archbishop of Armagh, and spent much of her time caring for poor, sick or disadvantaged people, especially during the Irish potato famine (1845-1852). She has been criticised, however, for the original third verse of ‘All things bright and beautiful’ because it acknowledges the separation of classes: ‘The rich man in his castle, The poor man at his gate, God made them high or lowly, And ordered their estate.’ That verse is almost never sung today.

      Question 4 pondered what treats are left out in some Scandinavian countries for elf-like creatures who bring presents at Christmas. A good number of votes in church went for sausages, even more for cakes, and only a few for porridge. But the correct answer is porridge. Apparently Scandinavian children think healthy food will speed elves on their way through a long night of leaving presents. There must be very healthy children and elves in Scandinavia.

      Question 5 asks about the main ingredients of mince pies when first made and eaten 800 years ago. The options were Meat, Dried fruit, or Spices. The right answer is all three. And each part of the mince pie was there for a reason:

      • meat (mostly lamb or mutton) was simple food because it represented the shepherds
      • dried fruit (raisins, prunes and figs) because they were an affordable alternative to sugar to sweeten the mince pie
      • spices (cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg), were, along with the fruit, expensive items as they were imported from the Middle East, but their cost symbolised the lavish gifts of the wise men.

      In those medieval times mince pies had 13 ingredients. Why 13? Because that was equal in number to Jesus and his 12 disciples.

      Question 6 was about how many mince pies are sold in the UK during the run-up to Christmas. I offered alternatives of 80 thousand, 800 thousand or 800 million. The correct answer is a staggering 800 million. Of course that’s only how many are sold. It does not include all those baked at home, nor those bought or made at other times of the year.

      To know how many mince pies per person are eaten each Christmas in the UK, you can’t just divide the population into 800 million. Why not? Because some people don’t like mince pies so never eat any. Then there are babies who can’t or shouldn’t eat mince pies, and young children who don’t like them now but may later in life. However, rough estimates suggest that those who like mince pies will eat between 15 and 19 per person at Christmas. Add to that all the other fattening foods they’ll consume, and it’s no mystery why many of us put on weight over Christmas!

      Question 7 explains that mince pies have had various shapes, but asks what shape they were in medieval times. Were they round, star or rectangular? The correct answer is rectangular because they were baked in large dishes with that shape – and consequently often called ‘coffins’. But bakers of ancient times also recognised rectangular dishes were similar to a manger, and, with that in mind, many topped their pies with a pastry baby Jesus figure. Personally I can’t imagine cutting or biting into a pie decorated with Jesus. The round shape of mince pies – common today – dates only from the Reformation in the 1500s.

      Part 3  Reflection

      Christians tend to frown on the extravagance and excess of fringe activities which accompany Christmas – parties, decorations, gifts, over-indulgent meals, perhaps even the mince pies. Surely these things are not what Christmas is all about?

      No, they are not. But there is nothing wrong with Christmas celebrations providing the fringe things do not become the main thing. Jesus went to a wedding reception with plenty of food and wine. He didn’t refuse to attend, objecting that food, drink and dancing were not what marriage is about. He joined others in celebrating what the main event meant, a couple pledging their love and lives to each other. Likewise, as long as we recognise that the main thing about Christmas is God coming into this world to save us, we can celebrate.

      But we go wrong if we allow Christmas to stand alone. Christmas belongs with Easter, because Easter is the fulfilment of what began at Christmas. You need both to understand what God was doing by coming into this world. I’ll explain.

      I grew up only nine miles from St Andrews, the ancient ‘home of golf’. When I was aged about 13, I entered the prestigious Eden Boys’ Golf Championship at St. Andrews. It was played on the Eden Golf Course, but those who qualified in the early rounds would play later rounds on the famous Old Course. I was playing well. I knew I’d qualify.

      I arrived at the course, carrying my second hand clubs in an old canvas golf bag, and wearing the same clothes as I did when playing football with friends. But one boy, maybe aged 15, was dressed immaculately. He had a proper golf hat, proper golf slacks, proper golf sweater, proper golf shoes. And he’d brought brand new clubs in a brand new bag which contained brand new balls. He even had a caddie to carry his clubs and guide him round the course. He stepped onto the first tee with a swagger. His backswing was immaculate and the downswing looked good too. But clearly it wasn’t, because although the lad hit the ball hard, he sliced his shot way off to the right where it disappeared over the course boundary to land among old railway sheds. His caddie tossed the boy another brand new ball. He drove, and off to the right and out of bounds that one went too. So did number 3. Number 4 did not, only because he topped the ball and it ran a mere 100 yards down the fairway. As he walked away, I saw no swagger, just a crestfallen figure who knew he’d lost any chance of winning on the first hole. I wasn’t going to do that.

      I didn’t. My chances didn’t disappear on the first hole, just on almost every hole after that. From hole 2 on, my drives and fairway shots went all over the place and my putts kept missing the hole. I was well over par after nine holes.  My Dad had come to watch me. He was a very good player with a low single figure handicap. That day he was at the side of every fairway, and I knew he would be silently cheering me on. But, as I messed up yet another shot, I was thinking ‘Today what I need is not my Dad watching me; I need him to come over here and play the shots for me.’ Which, of course he couldn’t. I didn’t qualify.

      Christmas is not about God watching us as we mess up our lives. It is about God coming from heaven to earth to save us. We mess up – so much of what we think and do is out of bounds – but God did not sit in heaven, wringing his hands and feeling sorry or angry about our lives. He came, not to watch us but to save us. That began with his birth into this world at Christmas, and was completed when he died and rose again at Easter.

      God – ruler, judge over all – stepped down to be with sinful men and women, and then take the penalty on the cross for their sins. He died in our place. The angel who told Joseph to take Mary as his wife said: “She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). To save us is why he came. That is why Christmas matters so much. I am all for celebrating Christmas. It’s a wonderful, joyous time. The Lord has come. All people on earth should receive their king. Watching from a distance would not have been enough. He came right alongside to save us, and that’s what makes Christmas so special.

      [1] Quotation from Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlotte_of_Mecklenburg-Strelitz

      [2] By 1848 the couple had six children and they are shown in the painting: Victoria (1840), Albert Edward (1841), Alice (1843), Alfred (1844), Helena (1846), and their newest arrival, Princess Louise, born in March 1848. Eventually there were nine children, five daughters, four sons. Their last child – Princess Beatrice – was born in 1857. She died in 1944, having long outlived not only her mother but all her siblings.

      Christmas Quiz part 2

      Welcome to the second of three parts of a Christmas Quiz I prepared and used at a recent church service. All ages were present, so some questions were aimed at the children (though several adults raised their hands, perhaps young at heart).

      If you have not read and engaged with part 1 of this series, I’d strongly urge you to do so before moving on to this quiz. You’ll find it at: https://occasionallywise.com/2025/12/27/christmas-quiz-part-1/ As well as tackling the first quiz, you’ll understand better the three sections in each of the quizzes – 1) the quiz; 2) the answers; 3) a personal reflection.

      I hope you do well with Quiz 2. And that you don’t disbelieve the story near the end of my bizarre and dangerous journey… There is a point to it. From both the quiz and reflection I trust you will learn, enjoy, and feel challenged!

      Part 1  The wise men who visited Jesus

      Q1  The wise men came from the east to find Jesus. No-one knows for sure, but where did they travel from?

      1. Europe, perhaps Italy or Greece
      2. Ancient Persia, perhaps countries like Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan
      3. North Africa, perhaps Egypt or Mauretania

      Q2  How did the wise men travel to visit Jesus?

      1. Taxi
      2. Plane
      3. Camel
      4. Walked

      Q3  How long would the journey have taken for the wise men to visit Jesus?

      1. 5 days
      2. 50 days
      3. 500 days

      Q4  What were the names of the wise men?

      1. Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar
      2. Matt, Tommy, Alex
      3. We don’t know

      Q5  We don’t know how many wise men there were, but we do know they brought three gifts: gold, frankincense and myrrh. Each gift had a special significance. But only one of the gifts below is described correctly, which means two gifts have wrong descriptions. Which gift has the right description?

      1. Gold – used in worship of God
      2. Frankincense – a gift for a king
      3. Myrrh – an embalming oil used after death

      Q6  Why did the wise men take a different route home?

      1. They wanted to do some sightseeing
      2. They took a wrong turning – went west instead of east
      3. They didn’t want to be forced to tell Herod where Jesus was
      4. King Herod’s soldiers were searching for them because they had failed to obey his order to return to him after visiting Jesus

      Part 2  Answers to Quiz 2 questions

      Question 1 mentions that the Bible says the wise men came from the east (Matthew 2: 1), but asks us to be more specific about where they were from. The best answer here is ancient Persia, most likely from modern day Iran. They would have travelled on trade routes which extended from Europe all the way to China. The alternative answers are obviously wrong – since they came from the east their homes were neither to the west nor the south.

      Question 2 – asking how the wise men travelled – was really for the children, all of whom knew which answers were silly: there were no taxis or planes back then.So the choice is that either they rode on camels or they walked. Keep in mind that the question asked how the wise men travelled. I point that out because the wealth of the magi makes it near certain that they rode on camels. But their servants will have walked.

      Question 3 is about how many days it would have taken for the wise men to reach Jesus. The options in the question were 5 days / 50 days / 500 days. In this case, calculation and guesswork are both required.

      First, we have to guess more exactly where the wise men started from. Persia covered a vast amount of the ancient world, in ancient times that was from countries in modern-day eastern Europe right across to parts of India and south to Egypt. It was smaller by the time Jesus was born but still large. Estimates, then, of how far the wise men and their servants travelled range from 500 to 1200 miles (805 km to 1931 km). I believe 1000 miles (1609 km) is a reasonable estimate.

      Second, several factors will have affected how fast the wise men travelled:

      • Because their attendants will not have been provided with camels, progress will have been at walking pace
      • Even if they stuck to trade routes, the terrain would often be difficult
      • The weather would rarely be ideal; dust storms, for example, would halt all progress
      • People and camels would need rest stops
      • They couldn’t carry everything necessary for the whole journey, so they would stop occasionally to buy fresh supplies
      • They went to Jerusalem and later moved on to Bethlehem – we have to allow time in both locations
      • We know they returned home by a different route, almost certainly one less-travelled, so probably less direct and with more difficult terrain

      Accounting for all these factors, they are unlikely to have covered more than 20 miles per day. Based on the assumption of a 1000 mile journey, we can make this calculation: 1000 miles ÷ 20 miles per day = 50 days. Add in stops in Jerusalem and Bethlehem, and taking a ‘minor road’ home, the total journey out and back would be around 120 days, close to 4 months.

      So, from the options on offer in the question, the nearest and therefore best answer for how long it took for the wise men to reach Jesus (just the outward journey) is 50 days.

      Question 4 asks about the names of the wise men, offering a couple of options or the response ‘We don’t know’. When I asked this question in church, some voted for ‘Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar’, no-one for ‘Matt, Tommy, and Alex’, and most for ‘We don’t know’. The correct answer is ‘We don’t know’.

      The Bible never tells us the names of the wise men. It’s unlikely Mary, Joseph or anyone around them asked them. For one thing they came from Persia. For another they spoke a different language. For yet another, they were eminent people, scholars of philosophy, medicine and the natural world, possibly advisors to Persian kings. You don’t probe people like that for personal information.

      But, since those times, nothing has stopped people inventing names for them. The ancient names I included first appeared in an 8th century chronicle known as the Excerpta latina barbari asBithisarea, Melichior, and Gathaspa, though that religious chronicle is a Latin translation from a lost Greek manuscript written some 200 years earlier. So, at best, those names were created hundreds of years after the wise men visited Jesus. Wikipedia summarises some other options:

      “Within Eastern Christianity, the Magi have varied names. Among Syrian Christians, they are Larvandad, Gushnasaph, and Hormisdas, which are approximations of typical Zoroastrian names, in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, they are Hor, Karsudan, and Basanater, while Armenian Catholics have Kagpha, Badadakharida and Badadilma.”

      People seem fond of attributing names to mysterious people. But all names associated with the wise men of Jesus’ time are inventions. You may have wondered why the names of ‘Matt, Tommy and Alex’ were an option? Well, they were wise men. Matt Busby, Tommy Docherty, and Alex Ferguson were all very successful managers of the English football team Manchester United.[1]

      Question 5 is slightly complicated. It lists the wise men’s gifts and the significance of those gifts. But two of the gifts have the wrong significance. Only one of the three is correct. But which one?

      The first two are mixed up. Gold was not used in worship, nor was frankincense a gift for royalty. I should have written that gold was a gift for a king because then – as now – gold was precious and expensive, chosen by the wise men as a gift for Jesus in recognition that he was King of the Jews (and, indeed, of all people). Frankincense is a sweet, fragrant resin whose aroma is used in worship.[2] It was also expensive, but a worthy and appropriate gift for one who should be worshipped.

      The only correct description of a wise man’s gift, then, was the third – that myrrh is an embalming oil used after death. Myrrh is a yellow, fragrant, sap-like resin that oozes from cuts in the bark of certain trees. Many hold it to offer medicinal benefits – and it can be an ingredient in ‘natural’ toothpastes – but scientists and doctors generally urge caution and want further studies about medical use of myrrh. In Jesus’ time, though, myrrh had antiseptic, preservative, and aromatic properties which is why it was used to embalm a dead body.

      But embalming oil is a strange gift to be brought to the infant Jesus. Unless, as many think, this is the first hint that the baby born to Mary had a destiny related to his death. In our day we imagine that a young child will achieve great things during a long lifetime. But Jesus would not have a long lifetime. He would accomplish God’s will by accepting death in his early thirties. This child had a unique purpose, and the gift of myrrh foretold it would be fulfilled by laying down his life.

      Question 6 is both humorous and serious in asking why the wise men took a different route for their journey home. We can discard the first two options – these wise men weren’t interested in sightseeing nor would students of the stars get confused and go west instead of east.

      Options ‘3’ and ‘4’ are probably both true. The Bible provides only brief information about why the wise men’s plans changed: “And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.” (Matthew 2:12)

      The nearest correct answer is probably number ‘3’, that they didn’t want Herod to know where Jesus was. Why? Because he might kill him. When the wise men met Herod before, he told them to search out the child and then report his location to him “so that I too may go and worship him”. (Matthew 2:8) The wise men weren’t fooled. From all they knew about Herod, he was never going to worship Jesus. If this baby was King of the Jews, he was Herod’s rival and thus a target for assassination. To return to Herod’s palace would have meant imprisonment and torture for the wise men until they revealed Jesus’ whereabouts. So they made sure that could not happen.

      The option ‘4’ answer – that failure to report to Herod meant they were now being hunted – will also be true. When they didn’t return to tell where Jesus was, we know Herod was “furious” (Matthew 2: 16) and this king was notorious for his cruelty towards those who displeased him. When I wrote before about Herod’s edict to kill all the boys aged under two around Bethlehem, I explained just how cruel Herod could be:

       The horrific truth about King Herod is that these deaths in Bethlehem were not the greatest evil of his reign. All his life he’d done terrible things. Early in his rule he’d killed off half the Jewish Sanhedrin (the ruling court for the Jews). Later he’d had 300 of his court officers put to death. He also murdered his mother-in-law, his wife, and three of his sons. Finally, when he lay dying, he gave orders that one member of each family in Israel was to be killed. Why? To guarantee the nation would be mourning at the time he died. (Thankfully, with Herod dead, that last order was never carried out.) Herod has been described as “a man of ruthless cruelty…”. He certainly was. (From: https://occasionallywise.com/2025/01/25/doubly-wise-men/)

      The wise men had outwitted and frustrated Herod, so his kill-squads would be hunting for them. Had they not taken another route, they would never have got home.

      Part 3  Reflection

      The wise men are usually portrayed as lovable and loyal men who made a long journey to give gifts to baby Jesus, which is probably why giving gifts made its way into Christmas celebrations. It’s all very lovely.

      What is little recognised is the immense faith, cost and risk involved for those wise men to find Jesus. Here is my summary:

      • Their guidance to travel came from seeing a star in the sky. It takes great faith to launch out on a long journey based just on that.
      • They knew they would find only a baby, not a new ruler already established in a palace. But still they went because they believed this baby was like no other: the child God had placed on earth to rule over all people.
      • They ventured into unknown countryside. They would never have travelled so far west before. They couldn’t know how long the journey would take or the hazards they’d face. But they set off anyway.
      • The expedition would have been at great expense. They needed camels, servants, tents and other supplies. And the presents they carried were very costly, but they were presents worthy of putting before a new king.
      • Groups like theirs were often the target of thieves who attacked camel trains moving slowly along the main routes. The wise men and their attendants were in constant danger of being robbed and killed.
      • Having found Jesus, they refused Herod’s command to reveal Jesus’ location – that decision could have cost them everything.

      Despite all that, the wise men risked their lives and their riches in order to bow before Jesus and present their gifts. All those who profess to follow Jesus, including me, need to ask what we are willing to give up to worship and serve Jesus.

      As General Director of a large mission agency, I visited many poor or damaged communities. One of those was high up a mountain on a small island on the west edge of Indonesia, not long after the major tsunami hit the area in 2004. I was told that the residents of the village we would visit were deeply impoverished – $1 a day workers. There was a small church in that village, and my role was to encourage and help where possible.

      Along with a colleague and a few locals, we rented a ‘bus’, which was no more than the size of a VW camper van. The early travel into the foothills of the mountain was not especially difficult, but before long we moved from a made-up road to an earth track. It quickly became steeper and steeper, and muddier and muddier. On left and right were deep valleys. A small slide sideways and we’d be gone. Then, looking ahead, I thought our journey could not continue because the track had collapsed down into a valley. Our driver was undaunted. He found a marginally navigable path down into the valley, across a small river, and then back up to rejoin the main track beyond the collapsed section. We did that several times.

      Then we really came to a halt. A complete halt. Our ‘bus’ had broken down. The engine had stopped and refused to restart. We clambered out to be met by a wall of heat. The Equator runs right through Indonesia, and daytime heat, even part-way up a mountain, is severe. It was impossibly hot to stay in our broken down bus behind glass, but it was little better outside since there was almost no shelter. There was no choice really, so for nearly three hours we waited at the side of the road in baking sun for another ‘bus’ to rescue us. Finally another camper van style vehicle arrived, we climbed in and went on our way twisting and sliding, always within inches of disaster.

      The people of the village and surroundings had been told we’d arrive during the afternoon. Now it was late afternoon and we were only part way up the mountain. We would not get to the village until mid evening, hours after dark. They would all have gone home. But they hadn’t. As we finally pulled in it was obvious no-one had left. Everyone had waited for us.

      I was met by the pastor, a young man no more than 20 years old. He was overjoyed that we had come to his village and to his church. The fact that we’d made that tortuous journey clearly mattered to him and his people. After we had eaten some food, the pastor asked if I would like to see where he lived and studied. Of course I would. He pulled back a curtain behind the church platform to reveal a small area with a blanket on the floor as his bed, and what looked like a school desk as the place where he worked. There may have been a box in which he kept his few clothes. He had no other possessions and no other home. His pay? Almost nothing, though the congregation provided his meals. The pastor was thankful for the privilege of serving his church. I was thankful they had a young man such as him as their pastor.

      It was now very late, but everyone gathered for the church service. The pastor told me I would preach and afterwards cast out demons from three women. I was used to preaching but casting out demons was not in my normal church ‘order of service’. Nevertheless I nodded, and the service began. I preached with an interpreter, sticking to short sentences and avoiding references to events or situations beyond the understanding of these people. It seemed to go well. Towards the end of the service, the three women were brought to me, and with some difficulty I spoke words over each of them to set them free from the work of the devil. That apparently went well too. The women had been helped.

      The village, of course, had no street lights so we stepped out into total darkness, and climbed into our bus for the return journey. Then we faced our latest and greatest problem. The headlights on the bus would not work. Nothing the driver did could make those lights shine. I resigned myself to spending the night somewhere in the village. But our driver was determined to get his bus and passengers down the mountain. His young assistant, aged about 15, was given a hand torch (a flashlight) and told to sit on the roof of the bus and light our path. That was crazy. The lad would almost certainly be thrown off the roof as we swung from side to side going down the bumpy and twisty road, and I was sure the light from his torch would not show us more than a few yards ahead. But off we set. The assistant’s torch was as feeble as I predicted, but by going very slowly the driver kept us on the track. Despite many hair-raising moments we crawled down that mountain safely.

      Next morning I thought through the events of the day before. Gradually those thoughts did not centre on my risk, or my discomfort, or my potential demise. The tortuous journey was the event of just one day, one tiny part of my life. That was as nothing in hardship compared to what the 20-year-old pastor experienced as night after night he slept on a blanket on the floor, and day after day ministered to desperately poor villagers. He had accepted God’s call to serve in a remote village – no health care, no backup, no pay, no normal accommodation. There was no way he was comfortable. But he did not expect to be. His life was dedicated to worshipping and following Jesus no matter how great the cost. Jesus had given his life for him, and now he was giving his life for Jesus. That young man deeply challenged me.

      The wise men risked everything to find Jesus. For those of us who, in any sense, have found Jesus, how much risk, hardship and sacrifice are we accepting to serve the one who came to be our king and our saviour?

      [1] And they were all Scottish!

      [2] Frankincense is still used today in worship but also in aromatherapy, skincare, and other traditional forms of medicine. It is considered by some but not all to have qualities to manage conditions like inflammation.

      Christmas Quiz part 1

      I was asked to preach in our church on a Sunday morning just before Christmas. All ages would be present, so I didn’t preach. Instead I created a multiple choice style Christmas Quiz, and asked people to vote for right answers, including a few questions especially for children. Some possible answers were deliberately funny or odd, but giving out the right answers allowed truth to be communicated. Thankfully, everyone got involved. No-one fell asleep. And the feedback afterwards was positive.

      I hope the quiz will also be a positive experience for readers here. What follows is the first part of the quiz presented in three parts. First, the questions. Second, the answers including extra details. Third, a reflection related to the main subject in that quiz. I don’t usually get ‘preachy’ in my posts, but the reflections were a core part of how I presented the quiz in church and they belong here too.

      Here goes. Don’t cheat by looking ahead to the answers before you commit to your own answers to the questions. Above all, learn and enjoy!

      Part 1  Questions related to the birth of Jesus

      Q1 Matthew chapter 1 lists ancestors of Jesus. One of the following would not normally be wanted in an Israelite’s family line. Which one?

      1. Rahab
      2. Ruth
      3. Zerubbabel

      Q2 Joseph and Mary travelled from Nazareth to Bethlehem just before Jesus was born. Why go there?

      1. Because there were better maternity services in Bethlehem
      2. Because Bethlehem was nearer to the holy city of Jerusalem
      3. Because the Romans required everyone to be counted in their own city

      Q3 It was about 80 miles (129 km) from Nazareth to Bethlehem. Did Mary:

      1. Walk?
      2. Ride on a donkey?
      3. Ride on a camel?
      4. Ride on Joseph’s shoulders?

      Q4 There was no accommodation available for Joseph and Mary in Bethlehem. So where was Jesus born?

      1. In the basement of a house
      2. In a stable
      3. In a cow shed
      4. In a cave

      Q5 A manger is where food was put for animals to eat. In Jesus’ time, what was a manger made from?

      1. Masonry (such as bricks)
      2. Stone
      3. Wood

      Q6 An angel told Joseph that, when Mary gave birth to a son, he was to give him the name Jesus. Why that name?

      1. Because it was the most popular boys’ name at the time
      2. Because the angels in heaven had voted for that name
      3. Because the name Jesus had special meaning

      Part 2  Answers to Quiz 1 questions

      Question 1 asked which ancestor an Israelite would not want in their family line. The answer is Ruth. Why not the others? Rahab, after all,had an unsavoury occupation in Jericho, but she hid the Israeli spies so was accepted after Jericho fell. Zerubbabel would have been a popular ancestor – he was the descendant of David who was appointed to be leader of the first group of Jews who returned to Jerusalem after captivity in Babylon.

      Why not want Ruth as your ancestor? The answer lies in Ruth’s background. Ruth came from Moab, a nation regarded as immoral, idolatrous, and so great an enemy of Israel that Deuteronomy contains a ban on Moabites entering the assembly of the Lord (23:3). But Ruth was excused because of her marriage to Boaz and her loyalty to her mother-in-law, Naomi, which included this remarkable declaration: “Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried” (Ruth 1: 16-17).

      Question 2 was about why Joseph and Mary went to Bethlehem. There weren’t better maternity services – Bethlehem was a village, with, at most, one woman who delivered babies. Yes, it was closer to Jerusalem, just 6 miles (9 km) south of the city. But the reason Joseph and Mary went to Bethlehem is that the Roman authorities had given them no choice because their census required everyone to go to their home city, which, for Joseph, meant taking his family to Bethlehem. Luke described that this way in his gospel: “In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world.(This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to their own town to register. So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child (Luke 2: 1-5).”

      Question 3 asked how Mary travelled during the 80 mile journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem.Being nearly full-term pregnant, she would not have ridden on Joseph’s shoulders (though I did tell the church the experience Alison and I had like that – check this footnote for details.[1])Nor, since it’s very likely Joseph and Mary were poor, could they have afforded a camel for her to ride. So, the only realistic options were for her to walk or ride on a donkey. Though no donkey is mentioned in the Bible’s birth story, the most likely answer is that she sat on a donkey for 80 gruelling miles.

      Question 4 raises the issue of where they stayed in Bethlehem. This can seem complicated. If it’s not interesting for you, skip to the end of this explanation.

      The traditional story is that the inn was full because so many were in the village for the census count. That may be right, but not necessarily. Much depends on how the Greek word kataluma (κατάλυμα) is translated, because it can mean ‘inn’ or ‘guest room’. Kataluma is the word used in Luke 2:7 where most translations (but not the New International Version) say there was no place for the family in the inn. But Luke also uses the word kataluma in 22:11 when Jesus sends his disciples ahead to enquire about the ‘guest room’ where they can observe the Passover. So, using the same word, did Luke mean ‘inn’ or ‘guest room’ when he was explaining where there was no accommodation for Mary and Joseph?

      A clue to the answer might lie in the fact that Luke uses a completely different word pandocheion (πανδοχεῖον) when he describes how the Good Samaritan left the wounded traveller to be cared for at an inn (Luke 10:34). That may suggest that in chapter 2 Luke was not referring to an inn being full, but that the guest room in a house was already full, hence Joseph and Mary had to settle in a place where animals were fed. Where would that have been for them? When I travelled in rural parts of Asia, I saw families keep animals below their living area. Preparing one lunch involved choosing a hen from those scuttling around below the floor where we sat. Similarly, in a Judean village in ancient times, the lowest area of the house often provided overnight shelter for animals. If not there, they might get night-time shelter in a cave near the main house.

      Since we don’t have precise information, the best answers for question 4 are either ‘a basement area’ or ‘a cave’.

      There could be one more answer, not listed in the question, if we are thinking only of where Jesus was born. People of those times were very hospitable, and especially so with a young woman close to giving birth. Therefore, when Mary went into labour, it’s likely she was brought into the main area of the house and helped to give birth there, and only after Mary and Jesus were safe and settled was the newborn laid in a manger downstairs.

      Question 5 asks what a manger[2] was made from. The traditional image of the manger is of a wooden construction raised up above the ground. That is near-certainly wrong. Wood was necessary for many things, but not to contain animal feed. Nor were shaped bricks required. A manger was no more than a box-shaped area capable of containing animal food and accessible for the animals eating it. So – with stones plentiful all over the countryside – building a manger involved no more than creating a shape, perhaps rectangular, with stones laid on the ground. Therefore the right answer is that a manger was made from stone, and that’s where the baby Jesus was laid.[3]

      Question 6 says Joseph was told by an angel that the baby to be born should be named ‘Jesus’ and asks why that name. Apart from one or two rebels, no-one in the church voted that the reason was because Jesus was the most popular boys’ name at the time, or that the angels had chosen it by a vote. So that left only the right answer: the name Jesus had special meaning. According to Matthew (in his gospel, chapter 1:21), long before Jesus was born, an angel told Joseph he must take Mary to be his wife, then added these significant words: “She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” Why did the name Jesus carry that that meaning? The answer is because Jesus is the Greek form of Joshua, and Joshua means ‘the Lord saves’. In other words, the baby carried by Mary should be called Jesus because the Son of God would be born on earth in order to save people from their sins. His name described his mission.

      Part 3  Reflection

      In modern times, we’ve wrapped up Christmas in tinsel, lights, winter scenes, heart-tugging romantic films, family gatherings, plentiful food, and the happy story of a new baby being visited by shepherds and brought gifts by wise men.[4] But what happened 2000 plus years ago is rugged, raw and very different from our homely stories. The reality was a tortuous 80 mile journey, a woman suffering all the usual pains of labour, probably giving birth in a basement or cave, and laying her new-born in an animal feeding trough. That woman was, in fact, a girl in her mid teens, a baby born into poverty, then hunted by a jealous monarch’s kill squad, and becoming a refugee with his parents as they fled to safety in another land.

      There was nothing ‘tinsely’ about all that. But this was God coming into the world as a human being. In his gospel, describing Jesus as ‘the Word’, the apostle John wrote: “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us” (John 1:14). God came to where we are. He had to; there was no other way to save us.

      In the early hours of 7th September, 1838, the paddle steamer Forfarshire was shipwrecked on rocks near the Farne Islands, off the NE coast of England. The larger part of the vessel sank quickly taking more than 50 people to their death. From a nearby island, 22-year-old Grace Darling saw the wreck from her upstairs bedroom in the lighthouse where her father, William, was keeper. She spotted survivors clinging to rocks, but certain to die soon as waves pounded the area. The weather was too rough for a lifeboat to launch, but Grace and her father pushed a 21 foot (6.5 metre) rowing boat into the water. Normally that boat required four oarsmen, but Grace and William together rowed their boat through treacherous seas for over a mile to reach the stranded survivors. Nine people were saved. Grace became famous once the rescue story became known, and she and her father were awarded medals for bravery. Sadly Grace died from tuberculosis just four years later.

      Painting by Thomas Musgrave Joy. In Public Domain

      But Grace’s courage, strength and determination meant lives were saved. She could not merely watch from the comfort and safety of her lighthouse bedroom. Nor could she wait on the shore, hoping that somehow these people would save themselves. She, and her father, did the only thing that could rescue them – they left the safety of the shore, went into the raging sea, rowed to where the eight sailors and one passenger were, and by going to them saved them.

      And that is what Christmas is about. God did not lament a lost world from a distance. He loved the world so much that that he came down from heaven’s glory to be alongside us and save us. It was hard, cruel and painful. But had Jesus not come we would be lost.

      Look out for the second part of the Christmas Quiz – coming soon!

      [1] The imminent arrival of a new baby often motivates parents to decorate or rearrange the home. For Alison and me, that meant we rushed to finish painting our very small shower room. It was so small, no ladder would fit inside, so we could not reach the very top of the shower space. So – with baby due any day – Alison sat on top of my shoulders, paint pot in one hand and brush in the other, and painted the previously unreachable area. Our son was born the same week.  

      [2] The word ‘manger’ comes from the Old French word mangier (now manger) = to eat.

      [3] In an article I read recently, the writer said Jesus was born in a manger. I shudder to picture that. He should have said Jesus was laid in a manger.

      [4] The next quiz will be about the visit of the wise men.