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A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Rev Azariah France-Williams, priest, author and broadcaster.

Good morning.

'A long time ago in a galaxy far far way’ so begins the intergalactic fairytale, Star Wars, now referred to as Episode Four a New Hope. On this day in 1977 people cued for hours in Leicester Square in London and other venues, to get to see this groundbreaking movie.

Do you remember the frog like alien Hans Solo? Or the old grouchy general Luke Skywalker? No? That’s unsurprising as these characters were from the early drafts of the Star Wars written by George Lucas and partner Gary Kurtz. It took several drafts before became the popular movie so many of us know and love.

Many film studios turned it down until eventually 20th Century Fox decided to give it go, and even then they didn’t have high hopes for the movie, allowing Lucas to buy the rights to any future merchandise revenue generated.

After Star Wars was a hit, that revenue enabled Lucas to fund the movies The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi! We can watch the finished product and find it is easy to forget the process.

As New Year approaches, I wonder if there are ideas we might be keen to test, goals we want to set? Are there dreams we’ve given up on when all that’s needed is another go, a redraft, another look at the script? And like George Lucas where there is vision, there may be value.

Gracious God, inspire our hearts with creativity and vision for the future. Reminding ourselves of the characters in the Christmas story we pray that in all our endeavours you grant us the joy of the angels, the eagerness of the shepherds, the perseverance of the wise men, the obedience of Joseph and Mary and the peace of the Christ-child.

Amen

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