Christmas 2008

Christmas has drawn to a close..although some traditions has it that Christmas last for 12 days; which means that it's supposed to last till the 5th or 6th January. But for us, the Christmas tree will come down in a few days' time.... So, in practice the celebrations may be over but in essence the spirit of Christmas should live on....

Christmas this year is slightly 'more special' since this is supposed to be a year of firsts for our church. So another first...first Christmas service at the new premise. That was yesterday. Today, we had the first Church School in the form of Christmas celebration was held at the new premise. My boy has written his take on it here.

Christmas message this year... Two Kings, a comparison between Herod and Jesus.
Key areas to compare were these...

1. Power
2. Possessiveness
3. Prestige
4. Phobia

Herod hung on to them in order to stay in power. Christ rejected them in order to give life.

I sometimes tend to think that each one of us are also like Herod at some point or another. I think sometimes we don't mean to but it's just that we find it hard to let go often times. More often because we might be afraid of losing something familiar, maybe. Imagine doing the same thing for years and suddenly someone takes over.... it'd feel very much like the empty nest syndrome cos suddenly it'd feel like we're left with nothing to do. And so we sometimes become possessive even of the responsibilities entrusted to us....so much so that we fail to train others to fill up the place after us. Cos to be left with nothing to do would leave a void in our lives....and that can be pretty scary!

But life is at best temporal on this earth by nature. So however possessive we are of the 'power' we hold, or how much we deem prestige to be or how phobic we are of things we are entrusted.... at the end of the day, they are only temporal. Choice is in our hands whether we want to hang on to it like Herod or lead a life akin to the living sacrifice that Christ did. This will be one of my many reflections as the year comes to a close.

An old friend back to join us... Christmas is a time to touch base. Attendance was good. Christmas is a time when more people come home. This year is also no exception. Church was filled.

The puppet team who had a last practice after the Christmas service....it was a quickie as there was lunch to attend. However, this year we decided to give it a miss. Spent some time at Ah Ho's before going home.

Christmas night was at the Tiongs. Dinner is usually good. Hung around, sang some carols before calling it night. Came home and Lil Rainbow opened up her presents. She had quite a lot this year....which made her really happy.

Been a busy Christmas.....a welcomed sort.