Advent Stories: That is Christmas!

When asked to write about what Advent means to us, my first thought went to Christmas Eve. I cannot imagine being anywhere else on Christmas Eve other than at First Christian Church. Standing there with my husband and son on either side of me, candle in hand, listening to the beloved story of the birth of our Christ, that is Christmas! Standing there with other church members who are my 'family,' singing "Silent Night," that is Christmas! All of us with that special feeling of love filling our hearts because we all deeply know the love of Christ whose birthday we will celebrate the next day.

Advent, the whole month leading up to this magical night, sometimes becomes a blur to many of us. We decorate the sanctuary with a lot of sweat and hard work. Some of us even end up with a few stitches, and maybe an occasional broken body part, but we persevere. Then we at First Christian have our traditional bazaar and luncheon, host a community organ concert, and celebrate wonderful friendships with a host of celebrations that always seem to involve food! Again a lot of hard work, but we do it out of love for our church and love of our God.

We must never forget why we celebrate Advent. We must use this season to once again prepare our hearts and our souls to remember and celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Vicky Gant Kinsel

2010