Here are the kind of Christmas stories I like:
First, a boy at our church just had his twelfth birthday. He told his family that he wanted every — EVERY — present given to him to be donated to Highland’s Christmas Store ministry. So every present that was brought to his party was placed in a larger box — a box that was then brought to the church to be part of this ministry.
I don’t remember doing that when I was twelve.
Second, a mentally handicapped woman at our church — to be honest, she’s mentally handicapped but spiritually advanced! — handed a couple envelopes with money to one of our ministers, telling her that they were for the Christmas Store to help those who are poor. “They’re just pennies,” she said. “That’s all I have right now. But I think God does a good job of using pennies.”
I’m her preacher. And she’s teaching me about discipleship.
Third, I watched in amazement again as about 500 of our neighbors came for the Christmas Blessing. The children of our neighborhood did such a wonderful job in the Christmas pageant. Then everyone gathered in the gym for a meal. Here are a couple pictures of the pageant:
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Rarely do I think to check the “recent visitors map” at stat counter. But I just did that and saw that of the last 25 visitors, there was one from Brazil, one from Tanzania, two from Europe, and two from SE Asia. So welcome to those of you who are far, far from Abilene. May God fill you with his joy and his presence!
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Note to HCC members:
We can still use volunteers to wrap and to greet for the Christmas Store hours this Thursday (3:00 - 7:00), Friday (1:00 - 7:00), and Saturday (10:00 - 2:00). This will take place at Christian Ministries of Abilene (our downtown outreach center on Walnut). Call Joe Almanza at Highland if you can help.
Thanks for sharing those stories Mike! You are a great encouragement to all of us!
Mike,
As a former door unlocker at church I share you love for that special woman. Her love for God and others is definately humbling to me. Oh, and I think I might be bringing up your international stat count.
I grew up pretty much thinking you should all but ignore Jesus in the month of December. I have come to embrace the beauty of Christmas. It took a while, and I still remember the article you wrote years ago while you were still at Sercey, the one where you explained that even if you didn’t know when your birth happened you would still want it celebrated. That made a lot of sense to me. I just wish Christmas had not morphed into something so materialistic. I would love to hear a lot of great stories today. Yesterday we argued. Maybe today we can take a break and tell stories.
Wonderful thoughts, Richard.
Yes, yes . . . more stories!
Greetings from Southeast Asia!
Those Christmas stories were really heartwarming. Thanks for sharing them with us.
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God bless you for reaching out to your community with warmth and joy during this time of year. What a beautiful spirit the teenager and the lady have in common…it must come from a common source. I would guess that they are generous all year, and not just at Christmas.
Merry Christmas to you and your family, Mike … and thanks for being a source of encouragement, strength, inspiration, and conversation.
Nice stories. Thanks. Reminds me when I was traveling with my job and my son offered all the money he saved to fly me home for thanksgiving. He was 12 as well.
Watching the pageant was moving. That little girl that you have pictured was Mary and she just naturally picked up baby Jesus and rocked him, looking very serene and would sometimes hand baby Jesus to Joseph. Joseph was played by a college student and I don’t think I have ever seen Joseph played so sweetly. I loved how they both would stop and gaze at baby Jesus.
The ending to that one song….”Fly to Jesus” had me weeping.
I was Jesus in those performing and leading us in worship of the light that came to us as a baby.
okay, it was supposed to say…I saw Jesus…not I was Jesus.
What is a Christmas blessing?
You ended the evening with “Fly to Jesus?” I hope you handed out tissues beforehand. My all time favorite. Those pics speak volumes. Keep the stories coming. I’m with Richard…
Loved the Christmas stories Mike. I grew up in a church where you could talk about the birth of Jesus anytime but December. In the month of December the birth of Jesus was forbidden. I remember as a child the songleader leading “O Holy Night” during the month of December. Poor guy had 20 people straighten him out after church. Pretty sad. Never seemed to make sence that the Baptist and Methodist kids spent the Christmas season learning about Jesus and singing song like Silent Night and we were only singing about Frosty and Rudolph.
I’m glad the church has come a long ways in the past 30 years on the Christmas issue. I even preaching a series of Christmas sermons this year. Not sure I’d have believed it possible a few years ago.
Blessings … Trey Morgan
I have a family member who will not display Christmas cards she receives having to do with Jesus. Crazy! What a better time to tell the world about our risen Savior!!!
Beautiful stories! This is really what it’s all about.
I grew up in Abilene and attended the “College Church of Christ”. I always loved going to Sunday night services in December because A.E. “Polly” Wells always lead Christmas carols. It was great! It was the only time we sang them at church— back in the good old days. Thankfully, we now can acknowledge the birth of Jesus in December, and even have Christmas trees at Highland! :):)
Even though I am not Catholic today, I feel blessed for being raised that way as a child. I have great memories of singing in the children’s choir on Christmas Eve - and I loved seeing the Nativity in front of the church too - especially when they added Baby Jesus on Christmas!
I am so thankful that precious Wanda is part of our faith family at Highland! She teaches me about Jesus and His Way everyday! Whenever I am around her I am reminded of when Jesus said,”Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by doing this you may be entertaining angels without knowing it.”
I wish someone would explain the Christmas Blessing!
Chris-
The Christmas Blessing is a meal that is served by Highland members to people in the neighborhood and surrounding community. For the most part, they are folks who might not otherwise get the chance to enjoy a big holiday meal. My family didn’t particpate this year, but in past years its been a great experience serving and getting to know some of our neighbors.
All/Mike-
This is actually the SECOND time our twelve year-old friend has done this. He’s a great kid - thanks in large part to his very loving, very generous parents. They are a fantastic model for raising children to live in the way of Jesus.
over the weekend i was putting out our nativity set, but could only find the wise men and shepherds. i thought to myself, “where is baby Jesus?”. i looked for a bit longer, but then went back to getting the presents i had bought the day before in order, and then hiding them. i opened the closet downstairs several times to put presents in there, all the while marveling to myself at how “right” each gift was for the giftee. the next day the thought of looking for baby Jesus came back to me. i had to stop and wonder to myself, “why am i not literally looking for Jesus instead of on the hunt for the “just right present”? i went to the closet once more and opened it, right there in front of me on a top shelf was the stable with baby Jesus! all along Jesus had been right in front of my face..just as He always is…literally and figuratively. GOD’s perfect gift to us is in plain view~always, all i have to do is look.
Thanks, Matt. I was afraid it was something like the Blessing of the Fleet by the Bishop:)
FYI - Today is the Feast Day of St. Nicholas (aka Santa Claus) You can read more about him here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Nicholas
Beaner,
Thanks for the link. Aside from the fact that St. Nicholas secretly gave gifts and lived in the 4th century, I guess the real question is: Was he instrumental or a cappella? My guess is a cappella.
No Sterling!!!!! (jordan jumps on grenade)
Our Christmas Blessing is happening this weekend. We definitely bite off more than we can chew by going into two different schools, but it is a time when the attention of the world is at least drawn by the manger if not on it. As God became flesh and lived among us, we must again be God’s flesh to live in this world!
A story:
A lady in our congregation had a tradition, of sorts, of doing what she called the 12 days of Christmas. She would pick out a family in the church that she wanted to buy gifts for and then go to the dollar store and buy some nice but inexpensive gifts. Her plan was to have them wrapped and then leave one gift at their doorstep, anonymously, each night for 12 nights leading up to Christmas day. The catch: she has cerebral palsy and needed someone(s) to help her. She approached us to do her “dirty work” We loved it. At the time, our 2 boys were in elementary school. And, to top it off, she had chosen our best friends to pull this deed on. So, every night around 8 or 9:00 we snuck quietly over to their house, our boys would quietly run up to the front door, leave the present, ring the doorbell and run. We would be parked around the corner, just far enough they could’nt see us, but we could see them. We had so much fun, and our boys have memories of giving in a fun way. What was particularly special was that Our best friend’s father was living with them and he was in declining health, living 2 states away from his home and friends. Later on, our friend told us that he almost got giddy about that time of night, expecting the doorbell to ring with the next gift. He passed away about a year later, and that was a memory that our friend cherished especially for her dad.
Thanks for the stories Mike.
Thanks for the reminder Karen.
Thanks for the info Beaner.
Thanks for jumping on that grenade Jordan.
Thanks for sharing the story and that idea Greg. I’ve participated in the 12 days of giving before and as you know, it’s at least as much fun for the giver as the receiver.
Happy Christmas.
I love how Highland provided interested members with Advent Wreaths last year. My two boys couldn’t wait to get it out this year. Being COC, I couldn’t remember what the first candle was called. But Aidan, my youngest, immediately chimed up, “The first candle is the candle of hope.” And it immediately struck me the power of ritual in spiritual formation.
Thanks for the link beans!
Hey, I want an advent wreath!
Love that story Greg. What a great idea!
PS That little Mary is beatiful!
Those are great stories. I love hearing about childrens’ views on Christmas.
My daughter had a good one the other day… We’re putting up our tree and on the TV a car commercial intrudes, complete with Christmas bells, snow, and ornaments, and she says, “We don’t need that store do we, daddy?” Puzzled, I asked, “Why not?” She said, “Because we don’t celebrate cars at Christmas. Celebrating cars is nothing.” I beamed, gave her a squeeze and said, “You’re right, kiddo. Celebrating cars is nothing.” Christmas wisdom from a 4-year-old.
Have you ever heard the Christmas story of little Wallace Purling, better known as Wally? I’ve added it to my blog if you want to read it. It is by far my favorite Christmas Story ever!
Trey
Hey, what gives? My bloglines teels me of a post about Harding and CT, but it doesn’t link.
Hey Fajita, mine does too. The post has a time stamp of 1:47PM Thursday, so I’m expecting it’ll show up later. I’ve had Bloglines pick up posts from PreacherMike that aren’t up yet before. Probably a quirk in the software somewhere - it’s picking up his drafts, I think.
He had that post up (the Harding one) early this morning - I thought maybe he pulled it. Enquiring minds want to know, Mike?
Ummm, I wrote it as a draft to sit on it a couple days. It published and I quickly pulled it off. May reappear later.
Does Harding have an ad in CT?
Hold that discussion until tomorrow.
I saw it.
Ah. Published then unpublished. That makes sense! I been wondering for a while what might cause that. My theory wasn’t even close!
You guys are lucky to get to celebrate the birth of Jesus at Christmas time. That is something you just don’t bring up at the church i attend. We don’t sing Christmas songs either at church. I remember years ago when i was a kid my dad took us to a baptist church nativity pageant. Even though i was very young, i still remember it as a moving experience. The argument is that we don’t know that Jesus was born at Christmas and that we should celebrate his birth everyday. That is true, but why not have a special day for the whole world to celebrate together.. Merry Christmas everyone and God Bless.