Christmas stories: There was one Christmas Eve that really sticks in my memory
I come from a blended family; my birth mother passed away when I was a baby. When I was two, my father remarried. His second wife already had a little girl who was seven years old at the time.
Because we each had two families, my sister and I would each spend Christmas Eve with the “other” family. I would go to my Grandmother’s and my sister would go to her Dad’s. We would all come together as one family to go to the midnight service at our church.
We would then have our family Christmas on Christmas morning. As I grew, my relationship with my birth mother’s family became more strained and I began to look forward more and more to attending the church service.
There was one Christmas Eve that really sticks in my memory. The day itself was rough and I was very tired by the time I left my grandmother’s house and returned home. I really didn’t want to go to church. All I wanted to do was take a bath and go to bed.
But, my parents always seemed to look forward to us attending church as a family, so I didn’t say anything and we went to the church service stating at 10:50 PM. The service it’s self wasn’t memorable.
Then as we were preparing for communion I felt something start to happen. I started to feel a sense of peace descend on me and the feeling got stronger and stronger as the rest of the service continued.
As we were singing “Silent Night” by candlelight, I really felt like God had reached out to me during the service to tell me that everything was well and would be as long as I continued to have faith in him.
As I went to bed that night, it really felt like the stress of the day was gone and I was at peace.
