By: Pastor Sam
Christmas at ET in the past has been filled with frantic emails to tri-congregational committees about setting up our crowded Inner Court celebration, scarily standing on top of a ladder putting up the Christmas photo board at the last minute, and standing in line at T&T buying all the cake loaves they had in fear of not having enough food. Knowing this history, when Tim announced there would be Christmas service this year, my initial thought was “Great…another program…”
It was hard for me to wake up. I dragged my feet to get to church and sat down, anxiously waiting for my chance to go home and try to rest – but somewhere between the simple yet powerful one-piano + violin worship, the intentional U-shaped chair setup and reflection time, something changed for me.
Tim planned an activity where we were all to go up and light candles representing our stories and connectedness to Christ. As I prepared to go up, I observed and a thought came to my mind – no matter how we saw Christmas, how exhausted we were, what burdens we had or how busy we were, we all came to the table before Christ together – a symbol of our common bond. I watched person after person go up to light their candles and I felt peace – it was as if I had forgotten the joy of gathering and being together to worship God.
Psalm 37:4 says “Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.” This past Christmas I was reminded of how good it is to simply delight in the Lord and how much I desired it deep down, even if I was too busy to admit it.