Looking Forward to Christmas
Children often measure time by Christmas. Christmas appears at the center of their calendars and everything else revolves around it. “How many days before next Christmas?” they begin asking soon after Christmas Day is finished (and usually before the bills have been paid). The Christmas season is the highlight of a child’s year. They enjoy the decorations, the cookies, the carols, and (if we are honest) they enjoy the presents they receive most of all. No other day, including their birthday, can match Christmas Day.
Christmas should be a big day, though perhaps not for some of the reasons of our children. Someone once said, “Christmas is the day that holds all time together.” Why? On the first Christmas Day, God became flesh and entered human history, revealing plainly the divine love for us. In the birth of Jesus on Christmas Day, God’s gift of salvation was clearly revealed. We received “good news of a great joy.”
Despite the many secular traditions of Christmas that serve to draw us away from the real story of the Christmas season, I rejoice that Christmas is the biggest day of the year. I rejoice that we look forward to Christmas with eagerness and anticipation. I wish we adults had a little more of the enthusiasm that our children possess . . . enthusiasm not for presents but enthusiasm to receive and experience anew the wonderful awe-inspiring news of God’s coming.
Please join us in worship on the northeast corner of the square during this Christmas season. We offer three unique services each Sunday morning. On Christmas Eve we worship in our beautiful, historic sanctuary. At 6:00 p.m. we offer a Family Worship Service led by our Gathering Praise Band. At 9:00 p.m. we offer a Traditional Service of Lessons and Carols with special music offered by our Chancel Choir. Both services celebrate the birth of Jesus through familiar carols and candlelight. I will tell an original story, “Old First Church,” at each service.
Many blessings for a joyous Christmas,
Neal R. Sadler, Senior Pastor
