Devotion

One of my favorite worship services is our 5pm Lessons, Carols and Candlelight service on Christmas Eve. We hear the Scriptures read of the coming promised Messiah in the Old and New Testaments, we hear the stories of Mary and of Joseph, the story of the wisemen who followed a star to Bethlehem.

My favorite part of our service is when the lights in the sanctuary go down and as we sing Silent Night we light our candles and turn to the person next to us as they light their candle from ours – until all of our candles are lit and the sanctuary is illumined in candlelight.

It is such a beautiful moment. I have the best advantage point in the sanctuary. From where I stand on the chancel, I can see all of your faces lit up from the candle you hold. I see the joy on your face that night. It is the joy of our faith – that God loves us so much that he would come to us in human form as vulnerable baby who slips in beside us to show us how loved we are – with a love that will never let us go.

My prayer for you this Christmas, is that you will have a time, somewhere in all the busyness of last minute preparations of cooking and wrapping gifts and last minute shopping that you will receive the gift of God’s love, given to you and me, given to all the world in the birth of Jesus Christ.

“How silently, how silently, the wonderous gift is given;

so God imparts to human hearts the blessings of his heaven.

No ear may hear his coming, but in this world of sin,

where meek souls will receive him still the dear Christ enters in.”

Yours in the journey

Pastor Kristen