What a beautiful Christmas Eve service we attended tonight! We went with our daughter Amy's family to their church in Marietta where Dr. Mark Walker is pastor. After several lovely Christmas carols by soloists and responsive readings from the scriptures, he spoke about how Christmas is all about children. After all, it began with a Baby. Stressing the scripture where Jesus says one cannot enter the kingdom of God unless he becomes as a little child, Dr. Walker compared the trust and utter dependence of children with the way we must relate to our heavenly father.
Several children were in attendance, and the small cherubs in the pew in front of us attracted my attention as their parents tried to keep them occupied. One miniature angel had a sippy cup with a straw that kept her enthralled as she faced backward in the pew. A cascade of silky, blonde hair fell to the shoulders of her slightly bigger sister, making me think of our own blonde granddaughter when she was younger. She has reached the ripe old age of seven, now, but she is still an angel.
To end the program, candles were distributed to everyone in the congregation, including the kids, who were given a battery-operated candle of their own. Candle lighters lit the candles at the ends of the rows, then each person in turn lit the candle of the one next to him, until the whole auditorium was ablaze with light. A picture of spreading the gospel, the light of Jesus, to the world.
When we got home, the kitchen became a confectionery as the female members of the family immersed themselves in making bon bons, otherwise known as Martha Washington balls. Granddaughter Corrin painstakingly chopped to perfection walnut and pecan meats, while Amy pointed out the advantages of using a mixer to blend the butter, powdered sugar and sweetened condensed milk over my mixing the concoction by hand. Then Rachel got in on the act as we all rolled a hundred or so balls of it to dip in the shiny, chocolate coating.
The teenagers were good at this, but it took all hands to finish the product. Then Amy arranged them on a silver platter and set them on the screened porch to cool in the crisp night air. Judging from the responses of the samplers, they turned out to be delicious! (The dipped pretzels we made yesterday are all gone.)
Earlier I had rushed home from town to make a pot of potato soup for an early Christmas Eve dinner before we set off for the services. I had just finished it when the others came in from shopping. I wasn't hungry and went to get ready for church, thinking I might eat some when we got back. They all said it was good, but by the time I made it to the leftovers, they had already found their way into soup bowls held by my granddaughters who wanted a bedtime snack. That was okay. With all the candy sampling, I wasn't hungry anyway. Fellowship with family and the afterglow of attending church on Christmas Eve left me quite full and satisfied!
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