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Viewpoint from Rev Albert Cadmore 11/01/2019
 Rev Albert Cadmore
chaplain of Great Yarmouth and Gorleston RNLI
as published in the Yarmouth Mercury
A year ago, as I wrote a Viewpoint article for Friday 12th January 2018, I made reference to the fact that many of us would inevitably face difficult challenges as we journeyed forward into 2018. I made that point in the knowledge that my wife and I would be facing the challenge of a terminal diagnosis following a major operation, and that she would be unlikely to be with us to celebrate Christmas 2018. Sadly, she died in October, and as we progressed through the year, her Christian faith, and mine, was put to the test. None of us can know how we will face up to such a challenge, but to any facing such challenges right now, I write words of encouragement
 I have previously made reference to the famous words of King George VI, in his Christmas Day address to the Empire in 1939, as the world faced up to the dark days of war. The King, along with so many others was heartened and sustained by faith as he quoted from a poem to say, “I said to the man who stood at the Gate of the Year, “Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown”. And he replied “Go out into the darkness, and put your hand into the hand of God. That shall be better than light, and safer than a known way”
On the same theme, one of the joys of Christmas, for me, is to reflect on the great Christmas message, from the first chapter of John’s Gospel, that gives us tremendous insights regarding who Jesus actually is, as he is referred to as the Word of God. We can read, ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God’. For John, Jesus, the Word of God, which means, the Mind, the Wisdom, the Power, or the Spirit of God, and is translated from the Greek word ‘logos’, which gives us our word ‘logic’, was there before time began. And John tells us of Jesus, that ‘In Him was life; and the life was the light of mankind’
 The light of hope, and the light of faith that comes through those profound words of John, brought, peace, light, hope and encouragement, through faith, in what would otherwise have been a very dark time for my family, and for any who may have such challenges ahead in 2019, may those words and that message, bring comfort and hope, as they did for us. Reflect on the King’s words from Christmas 1939, and “Put your hand into the hand of God’, and remember, ‘that shall be better than light, and safer than a known way’. And hold in mind the image of Jesus as the light of the world; the light that shines in the darkness and can bring peace of mind and hope when all seems hopeless
As we each journey forward into 2019 and the future, I wish you all a happy, healthy, successful and peaceful New Year
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