Know Your Christmas Gifts

Christmas Eve at St Luke began uneventfully enough. The weather was mild though rainy. My husband Paul and I picked up Hazel, another choir member who is older and does not drive, and gave her a ride to the church. She was delightful to converse with, as usual, telling us about her family traditions for Christmas Eve (she is from an Italian family) and other memories about her family. She described the homemade Italian wedding soup she was taking to her niece's for Christmas dinner the next day. Hazel has been undergoing some medical treatments for the past few weeeks, and said she had not felt well during the day. She almost decided not to come to the service. I'm not completely sure what swayed her, but it may have been the huge bag of homemade handtowels she always crochets for the choir members as a Christmas gift.

Hazel started doing this some years ago, apparently, when she had towels remaining from the Christmas craft fair. Now, the custom has grown into a tradition of choir members exchanging small gifts with everyone else in the choir. In addition to a hand towel from Hazel, Paul and I received bean soup mix from Kathy, homemade plum jam from Ginger and George, a reindeer bell ornament from Jim and Mary, and chocolate-nut bark of many flavors freshly home-made by Elaine (she toasts her own nuts, she proudly declared to the delight of the basses in the choir). Paul and I brought small packages of homemade cookies for everyone.

We surprised ourselves in the service by performing acceptably well on "This Little Babe" from Benjamin Britten's "Ceremony of Carols" which had been tripping us up in rehearsal. The service was going along fine until the lead-in to the last number. The sanctuary had been darkened to allow for candlelight and the singing of "Silent Night" when there was commotion in the choir stalls over Hazel, who seemed to have passed out. Cathy Clarke, a parishioner who is also a family physician, came to the rescue and she and her husband coordinated carrying Hazel out of the sanctuary with help from Paul, Franz, and Elaine. Fred Vivino, another parishioner who is a rheumatologist, called 9-1-1. Soon the EMTs and police had arrived, but by this time, Hazel had revived and claimed to be okay, telling Paul and the other carriers to 'go back in there and sing "Silent Night"'. The singing was extended a bit longer while the paramedics requested additional time to handle the situation. Feeling that giving them time would allow us to help out in some small way, Pastor David took requests and we sang a rousing "Go Tell It On The Mountain" before breaking up the service and going to the side hall for some of Ginger's Wassail.

I have not heard how Hazel is doing yet, but we surely had her in our prayers for the past two days. We never know when something can happen or go wrong; hopefully she is fine, but this was a reminder that as a church family, and simply as people, we cannot control anything and must be prepared to help one another and be strong for one another at any point. Likewise we must always be grateful for what we have, mundane though it may seem to us at times.

Christmas is an ideal time not just for gift-giving, but to think about--and be thankful for--the gifts we already have all around us that we have been enjoying throughout the year. (Sometimes--very often, in fact--these gifts are people!)

Being at St. Luke every Sunday morning allows me to review the previous week in my head. At what moments did I do well? At what moments did I fail to act in the best way? What moments affected me most deeply? I need to be brave enough to pray for myself to make the most of these times. I need to be faithful enough to pray for the others in my life, and to be thankful for their contributions. Hazel is without a doubt one of those people I am thankful for have in my life. In addition, Clyde, Dorothy, Pastor David, our fellow choir members, our families and all the old friends who love and support us, shine in our hearts infinitely more brightly than gold shiny paper.

Best wishes for safe and healthy holidays to everyone. Paul and I will miss church this week because we will be visiting with his family in Missouri until Jan 1. Much love and see you in the New Year!