The following Bible passage, reflection, prayer and action are taken from Surefish's Daily Readings, which can be found here

Arise! Shine!

The wolf and the lamb together

Something to read

They shall not labour in vain, or bear children for calamity; for they shall be offspring blessed by the Lord - and their descendants as well.
Before they call I will answer, while they are yet speaking I will hear.
The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, the lion shall eat straw like the ox; but the serpent - its food shall be dust! They shall not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain, says the Lord.
Isaiah 65:23-25 (NRSV)

Something to think about

Isaiah's vision for the kingdom that God is building - past, present and future - comes to a climax. He continues to spell out what it means to be completely fulfilled in God:

• Human family is fulfilled. There will be an end to the fear that nags at every mother, no matter where in the world she lives, about what the future will hold for the child she has borne.

• Human intimacy with God will be fulfilled. The destiny for which every child is born, a closeness to God which allows each to hear each others' whisper, will be a reality.

• Human oneness with the created order will be fulfilled. The environment - animal, vegetable and mineral - will never again be a threat, nor will humans be a threat to the environment.

These are features of the intervention of our gracious God into the life of the planet. While we wait for the advent of this great day, Christians are called to be beacons - shining in today's world by demonstrating that these things are possible, illuminating the path to the world to come where God will establish these things once and for all.

Something to do

With only a few days to go before Christmas, Christian symbols have appeared all over the country in public places. Among the Christmas lights showing holly and snowmen you will catch sight of an occasional angel if you look hard enough.

Between the Santas and the fairy tale characters in shop windows you will see an occasional manger if you are not moving too fast. This year, treat these as blessings that have dropped on to our streets to point the way to the great truths of Christmas. Try to enjoy the whole lot - even the cheesy parts!

Something to pray

For the sake of the past,
make me a listener who learns from the experience of others;
For the sake of the present,
make me a doer who improves the lives of others;
For the sake of the future,
make me a guide who points the way for others;
Until, in the fullness of time
all human souls come to the Light.
Amen.

Image of the day

In the Dominican Republic, children at Christian Aid partner Mudha have made colourful masks in their art lesson and will wear them at a local carnival. Christian Aid/Peter Graystone

Advent Calendar:
December 21

Birds find winter hard work – when you make your Christmas food, see if there are bits you can share. Mix fat from roasting meat with bird seed to make a cheap (sorry) bird feeder. They will like leftover mince pies and Christmas cake, cold pasta, and cheese scraps and cold potatoes too.

Advent tip of the day:
Take action and make a difference

The end of the year is always a good time for reflection – you might want next year to be different!  Never forget the difference you can make as an individual. By joining together with other like-minded people, individuals can quickly become a force for change.

Find out what Christian Aid is campaigning for and act now.

Amazon New Year’s resolution idea – eating healthy

It’s too late to order for Christmas, but what about those New Year’s resolutions? Christmas is a time for indulgence, but the New Year could be the time for low-cost healthy eating – try How to Feed Your Whole Family a Healthy Balanced Diet, with Very Little Money and Hardly Any Time, Even If You Have a Tiny Kitchen… Use the link to buy and raise money for Christian Aid as well.

Eco New Year’s resolution idea – grow your own vegetables

It’s getting a bit late now to buy Christmas presents online, but what about getting the New Year’s resolutions in early? Why not make 2010 the year that you… grow your own vegetables from seed – nothing tastes quite like fresh-picked veg. Use the link to buy the product and raise money for Christian Aid as well.

Today in history

Josef Stalin was born today in 1879. Apart from being an evil psycho in general, his impact on Russian Orthodoxy was to reduce it to a few hundred churches, four bishops, and no monasteries or colleges. He changed his policy when he realised he could not overcome religion.

It is St Peter Canisius’s Day, a great scholar who also distinguished himself as the Vatican’s secret agent, smuggling 250 page summonses to the Council of Trent to Catholic bishops across Protestant Germany.

It is Forefathers' Day in the United States, celebrating the arrival of an advance party of the Pilgrim Fathers in Plymouth, in search of a place to settle in their flight from the Church of England.

Martin Luther King and other black citizens rode in the front of buses in Montgomery, Alabama, for the first time today in 1956, after the triumph of their bus boycott.