Here in South Africa, where it’s warm, we’re on the beach,
and we don’t have access to seeing lots of things you normally see at Christmas,
it doesn’t really feel like Christmas. So to make it feel a little more like
the holidays we decided to get a Christmas tree, to have a White Elephant
Christmas Party, and we also received gifts from our ministry contact. Our
little improvements to Christmas were great but we were all still stuck with
this feeling that something was missing from Christmas.
A few days before Christmas the guys decided they would host
a Christmas Eve service for all of us, one of my favorite parts of Christmas.
The guys gather us all together, turn off the lights, light a few candles, pass
out some sheets of paper, and start the service. We opened our service in
prayer and then starting singing the Christmas hymns on the sheets of paper.
After singing 5 songs Evan reads the Christmas story to us, we pray some more and
then get back into our worship. We finish another 5 songs, read the communion
passage, and then take communion.
During those 10 songs,
I have never felt so close to God during a worship time. I was able to focus on
God more than I’ve ever been able to do before; I got to see 23 other people
worshipping God with tears streaming down their faces because of the glory of
God. It was the most beautiful thing I have ever been a part of! The music came
alive. The songs meant something. I was sitting on the floor staring across the
room at our “Charlie Brown Christmas Tree” and was the most content I have ever
been. I have always sung these songs at Christmas but this time it was
different, this time it was worship. For the first time in a long time I was
able to just bask in God’s presence and it was so good that I didn’t want to
leave that moment. I felt like this is what Christmas should be about every
year.
