Simple Xmas

Ah, another Christmas holiday successfully navigated.  At times, it can feel like a bit of an odd holiday.  It's a joyous time.  It must be.  It seems like at least half the carols we sing mention joy or gladness.  But our celebration is often mired in logistics.  Schedules must be synched and dates negotiated before the party can commence.  Or, more accurately, parties.  Our family gathers and celebrates Christmas at least three or four times with different family and friends.  I'm not just so glad each Christmas Eve, I'm also so glad each Christmas Eve Eve and so on.  The Christmas story itself seems intentionally simple.  No hospital, no mention of a midwife or description of labor.  Just a stable and a baby in a manger.  So simple, yet we've managed to make it complicated.  We can't help ourselves.

This Christmas, our church offered three Christmas Eve services.  The first was at 3:00, the second at 4:30 and the last at 10:30.  We attended to 3:00 one because it fit well with our plans to gather with my wife's family for dinner afterwards.  It was a festive affair, with both adult and children's choirs singing and other special music.  The sanctuary was full and I could sense that other families had evening plans similar to our own.  After the service, there was the usual hustle and bustle as people hurried off to their next engagement.  We did the same.  We follow this script every year and it has worked well for us.  We gathered at my  mother-in-law's house, had a meal and opened gifts.  A pleasant evening.

This year, we had one wrinkle in our typical Christmas Eve routine.  My oldest son, B, was slated to acolyte at the 10:30 service.  I dropped my wife and youngest son off at home and B and I returned to church.  He was less than happy about attending church twice in one night.  I'd noticed earlier that the 3:00 and 4:30 services used the same bulletin but that the 10:30 service used something else.  I assured him that the service would not simply be a repeat of what we had participated in earlier.

I could not have been more correct.  The 10:30 service was nothing like the earlier ones.  It was contemplative, quiet almost.  It was beautiful in its simplicity.  It was sparsely attended.  I wish more people would have witnessed it, but the small numbers contributed to a feeling of intimacy that fit the moment.  After days of shopping and wrapping and eating and unwrapping it was so refreshing to just stop for a moment and focus on the simple and profound story behind it all.  I'm so grateful B's acolyte duties brought me there.

Merry Christmas.