This has been an extraordinary year – a hard year – and one of the defining experiences for people all over the world has been distance. Distance from family, and friends. Distance from the rest of the world. Distance from normality. We know that this is necessary to regain normality - ‘Staying apart will keep us together’ – and to help get us through this, we’ve been encouraged to look to Christmas; after long months of separation, we will once more be able to enjoy family and friends, joy and closeness. But what if Christmas doesn’t give us that? You see, even a ‘normal’ Christmas can remind us of the distance between us – the distance of fractured relationships. We want closeness, but we have a habit of creating distance – and so we’ve been ‘socially distant’ for years! That’s because, ultimately, we are distant from God. We were created to live with him, enjoying intimacy and fellowship, but sin separated us from him – and each other. We were made to be close, but sin makes us d...