Just in time! Only when the world gets short of breath and the flame of hope drops down to a flicker - just in time!  Not with fanfare and trumpets, just softly, like light intruding into the cracks of a broken year - just in time! Only when we cannot go on any more, when darkness that we carry with effort within, or that can be seen everywhere outside, when it is ready to incapacitate our hearts and seems to swallow us whole, then we hear the silent whisper: "Today a Saviour has been born to you." Just in time. It is as if God Himself knows how necessary it is. Right now. Just in time. 

Just in time for Ravi, who received the news about his father's sudden death, while he, Ravi is captive on a ship sailing the deep blue seas. If only he could say goodbye...

Just in time for Emmanuel, whose ship lies like a carcass in the harbour after the owner left it there for dead. For Emmanuel the days drag on like years.

Just in time for Andrei, on a cold Durban night, when he received the news that his town in the Ukraine had been destroyed.

Just in time for Jun, from Manila, who wears the ring on his finger to remind him of a love that has to survive despite storms and distance.

Just in time for Liang, who unfolds a picture of his little daughter every day and who tallies the number of days before he can go home.   

And so, over oceans, across continents, through war and loneliness, the Light came again - just in time.

It is Christmas!

Just when we think the darkness will win, the Bethlehem light breaks through again - for Ravi, for Emmanuel, forAndrei, for Jun, for Liang ? and each of us that wait for that just in time miracle.

At the CSO we see it happen again every year. On the deck of a ship, in a captain's cabin, in the tears of a man working at sea, saying he misses his children, the Light of the Child becomes visible again. It comes in the form of a prayer, a shared cup of coffee, a hand on a shoulder, an ear that listens... 

Christmas reminds us that God's timing is always perfect. The Child of the Manger does not come too early or too late. He always comes when we are exhausted, when we no longer know how to cling to hope. And He brings light for every man working at sea, for every soul at sea, for every person that waits. Just in time. 

At the CSO we work during this Christmas time to remind each man working at sea, timeously of the Child that was born. Your financial contribution will ensure that we can continue to do so. Please consider, also in your prayers, to help us in this way.

May this Christmas be the same for you - a silent light that arrives just in time.