Thirty-One Days of Thankful: Christmas Eve Services

This year, for the most part, I have to say I have been blessed with a good 'lead up' to Christmas... For the most part, I feel like I've been able to keep my mind on Jesus as the reason we celebrate, and haven't gotten quite so bogged down by all the other busyness that sometimes overwhelms and overshadows.

Other years, however, this hasn't been the case.

This is one of the reasons why, in particular, I always really appreciate Christmas Eve church services. No matter what you've been doing or how busy and distracted you've been, it seems like that service, often with lights dimmed and candles lit, always kind of brings you back to center. Back to Jesus, the center. It seems His presence hovers even stronger over the gathering of His children on this night. The songs, the reverence, the awe... I just love it.

Tonight -- good Lord willing and the creek don't rise (i.e. we feel good enough to go) -- we're going to the church that a couple of my sisters attend. They, and their children, will be participating in the service. We, and our children, will not. I'm looking forward to this; to an evening of relaxed observing and absorbing. I participate in probably about 75% of church services we attend. This is a blessing and I love it, but it's also a treat when I get to sit back and take it all in.

If you're reading this, my prayer for you, on this night, is that you will be able to take time for Jesus; be able to take time to dwell in a place of homage and contemplation, and be thankful for His birth. I also pray that, if you haven't already, you will ask Jesus to be born in your life, and be your Savior.

While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light. . . . I have come as a light into the world, that whoever believes in Me should not abide in darkness.  John 12:36,46