It is the eve of Christmas.  It is late afternoon and I am excitedly awaiting the Christmas Eve Candlelight Communion Service.  I love this service as much as I love anything that happens here during the year.  I look forward to it every year and the closer it comes, the more excited I get.  I have not always loved this service because I have not always been a believer, but I have always loved the eve of Christmas.

As a child it was all about Santa Claus.  As morning passed into afternoon and afternoon into evening, the exitement would build.  The family would begin to gather.  My grandfather, “Papa;” would begin to watch the sky.  I would join him.  The local TV station, we could get only two; would track Santa in the night sky.  But we had our own way of  looking toward the sky.  Somehow the stars were brighter and moon more full on the eve of Christmas.  The sky excited the imagination of this young boy as I used to behold the majesty above me.  I still examine the night sky on the eve of Christmas more than any other night.  It is for me at least a night unlike any other.  It will be tonight.  After the service, I will stroll silently through our church giving praise to God that He has given me the incredible privilege of serving among such wonderful people.  It is a gift far beyond my deserving and a trust that I treasure.  This annual silent stroll will be filled with the tears of great gratitude for the profound privilege of being the pastor at FBC Waynesboro.  Then it is off to the house where this year for the first time we will break a tradition of having people over and grilling steaks  with all the trimmings.  We leave early Christmas Day for a brief visit with Anne’s family and then on to Ohio.  So, it is early to bed this eve of Christmas.  But like most, I won’t sleep much not because of Santa; but because of the joy that will well up within me as I lie in bed and reflect on what a blessed man I am.  I hope you know His blessing in your life on this eve of Christmas, and I pray that your Christmas will be a “mass” of Christ.  Merry Christmas everybody.

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