"KNOCK, Knock!" - I was challenged.

"Who's there?"

"Jesus"

"Jesus who?"

"You tellin' me a vicar's not on first-name terms with the Son of God?"

Advent this month leading up to Christmas - reminds us that we all should be.

Life's no flippant joke. Just as certainly as Jesus came once as a babe in a manger to save us, so one day he'll return a second time; this time as King of Kings, to judge of the world.

Then, our free will shall be suspended. "Every knee will bow" (Isaiah 45) - whether it belongs to a mere earthly king, a millionaire or the wilful likes of you and me.

Advent means that we are not sovereign. We're answerable to a coming higher power.

However, to those on first-name terms with the King - a privileged offered to all who vacate personal thrones -His second coming will be like a billion Christmases exploding as one.

For too many, life is as bleak as in Narnia in CS Lewis' The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe - "always winter and never Christmas."

We're living one such winter as I write - travelling daily to Royal Preston for radiotherapy, following my wife's cancer operation.

"Still switching on t' bedroom light?" I quip. "Linda's hardly glowing yet."

Black humour helps, but the greatest comfort is being on first-name terms with the One who's in charge.

The next best comfort is your cards and calls of love and prayers since mentioning it in October - beautiful, early Christmas presents. Thank you.