Christmas eve seemed to be a whirl of activity and mess, and no matter how hard I worked, the clutter, paper, and sticky tape seemed to increase until it took over the house. Wrapping, putting on bows, labels and ribbons, putting up the tree and hanging baubles, and all on my own. I really wanted to get it finished before the family arrived. Daughter, son in law and darling grandaughter were coming to spend Christmas with us, and I had no idea when they would arrive because of the snow.
Now I would love to be able to say that leaving everything to the last minute is an unusual occurrance for me but that would not be true. Christmas doesn't start for me (and no doubt millions of other teachers) until school has broken up and we have waved goodbye to all our pupils, gathered up our files and laptops and made haste to get out of the building as soon as possible.
Time was marching on, and my deadline was 2.30p.m. because that was the time I had to leave for church. The Christmas Eve Crib Service is an annual event in the village. Children come along with their parents to hear the story of the birth of Jesus and I was leading the service, with the help of our church music group and a variety of helpers who I would press into service when they arrived. It was a bit scary because it was the first time I had led the service, and the lady that had always done it in the past was a hard act to follow.
The church was full, children, parents and noisy infants all came to hear that wonderful story. It was quite lovely and the children were really well behaved, helping at the right moment by carrying the nativity figures to the stable, singing and really paying attention and listening.
This is what Christmas is all about. As I stood talking to the children I realised that all the frenzied activity of the morning was not what Christmas is about. The calm that overtook me in that beautiful old building with a history of worship for countless generations and looking at the eager faces of the new generation of children listening with rapt attention to this beautiful story, made me realise that Christmas starts here.
Merry Christmas everyone.
God bless.
No comments:
Post a Comment