The best gift this Christmas was having all my boys old enough to not only be in the Christmas Eve service but have them be old enough to understand exactly what was going on. While Max and Josh used to be so afraid of going on stage this year they had no problem being donkeys in our nativity account and Tate made for a fine Wise man.
At our church Richard sits in a red rocking chair on stage and tells the Christmas story and in between each part of the story we sing a Carol. Each child as we enter the church picks who they want to be and put on a head dress (or ears if they are an animal). Then when it is time for them to come on the scene they go up on stage. This year the stage was full!
After we go through the story of the nativity we take communion. This was our first time to have all three in the service with us and this year Tate had asked Jesus to be the boss of his life earlier in the year so he was going to get to take the Lords supper with us. It was the best part of my Christmas getting to explain to him what the bread symbolized and what the juice represented. To hear him ask why Jesus had to die and why he had to bleed was truly a moment I will never forget! The simplicity of a four year old agonizing over the fact that Jesus had to bleed and die for his sins was so simply warming and heart wrenching all at the same time.
We finished the service with a candle lighting as we had just celebrated in Christs birth through the nativity story. His death through Communion and now his Resurrection and life in each of us and through us to the world as we are commanded to be the light to the world.
After it was all said and done I got to visit several of our members. All of them are like family to us. One of the people we got to visit with was a former youth of ours. As he and his wife were in town to visit with family for the holidays they had brought an international student from the university campus where he studies and his wife works. They had invited this young lady from China and as she sat through the service the grace of our Lord descended upon her and her eyes were opened to the Gospel and she received Christ as her savior!
It doesn't get any better than that!
