The world will never be the same again

For me it's the face of a New Yorker, a woman standing on the pavement looking up at the World Trade Centre, as a hijacked airliner smashes into the side of the building.

It is the look of amazement and of horror.

Something unbelievable has broken into her experience, her life, her city.

The world will never be the same again.

In the face of such evil, it's not surprising that we can become bitter, sceptical, even despairing about humanity and our future.

Fear, self preservation and the need for revenge may energise the urgent task of rooting out terrorism but they do little to address the deeper questions of personal anger, social division, or global injustice.

And, as if we didn't have enough problems of our own!

For many, Christmas will be just a welcome escape from all these pressures.

We may feel that there should be something better but sadly we find it locked away in the world of nostalgia, childhood and idealism, and we have lost the key.

The Christian celebration of Christmas begins to open that door. Something unbelievable has broken into our world, something unbelievably good.

What the birth at Bethlehem says is, very simply, that there is a God who loves us.

This Christian message is more down to earth than Eastenders, more mysterious than Harry Potter, more powerful than any number of hijackers.

It liberates individuals and challenges every political and economic structure which divides and destroys people.

After Bethlehem, the world will never be the same again.