i imagine that for some church-going people, having Christmas on Sunday morn brought some conflict to our hearts. All the tradition of Christmas and Christmas Eve and all the hustle and bustle around on the actual day - my goodness, who has time for church on a Christmas morning.

 

It just so happens every once in a while that our dearly beloved Christmas falls upon a Sunday as it did this year.  I was given the privelege of preaching both the Christmas Eve homily and the Christmas morning sermon. Did I mention that I have 5 children?  Christmas is a very special time for my brood. We have over the years packed a lot of family tradition into the weeks and days leading up to and including Christmas - maybe a bit more than some.

 

We do the typical carroling with the youth, Kelly's Country Store for candy and going to see "Santa" at the train and hobby shop - even though Santa isn't held in high regard by many in the house :) ; we turn the kids loose at the flea market to get their presents for people that are on their mind, usually a Saturday or two before Christmas. This is of course combined with a Milton's hotdog and some sweets rolls from the bakery. We build a yule log and usually decorate it for our "Remembrance Time"before Christmas Day presents.

 

And it is always fun to go home after Christmas Eve service to get the Daddy gifts - special things that I pick out for each of them related to the building of  our relationships - anything that reminds them of Dad and things they can do with Dad. With all this stuff packed in, who has the time for Sunday service?

 

Well we would never actually state that would we? But boy oh boy, there is that part of us that knows what the real priority of Christmas is...

 

I was blessed by my kids and by my church family this Christmas morning. Kathryn and I had non-verbally agreed to highlight the Sunday service and push back the emphasis on gifts.  While we all like to do the gift thing - both giving and getting - that was not the center of what we as a family would be about this year.

 

We got up and had Sunday morning Christmas breakfast together. With my schedule, this not typically a reality on Sunday. We went to church together - really enjoyed the time together with our church family and then went home.

 

Now of course our kids were anxious for the presents under the tree, but they remained patient. We had a wonderful time around the fire place and talked about the blessing and forgiveness of Christ's birth, life, death and resurrection as we used the yule log activity to center us as a family. And then it was time for a greatly anticiapated gift time. And it was probably the most peaceful and enjoyable gift time we have had as a family - because it wasn't central. It some very real way, Sunday service made God central and all the other traditions became peripheral.

 

For that reason, I will look for a Christmas morning service each and every year, Sunday or otherwise. Consider the culture of your Christmas. Prioritize the true God and He will make His Gift ever more astounding.

 

en