Skip to main content

Last Night's Christmas Service

 



I'm pondering the festive glow of last night's Christmas candlelight service.  The pastor's sermon,  "You Are Why Jesus is the Reason for the Season," encouraged us to embrace the greatest gift of all.

The joyful carolers, excited worshipers and smiling choir filled my love tank to overfull.  New believers lined up for water baptism during praise and worship! I still feel the excitement of the massive congregation  clapping and cheering when these new lifers, one after another, rose from the water.

After church, we took advantage of the cute photo booths on campus.  The church's outdoor cafeteria served us cookies on snowflake napkins to go with our hot chocolate!





Why is this magical service so early in the holiday season?  We all must adjust since Sunday services max out in this place with eager attendees.  The new Thursday evening service fills up the sanctuary as well.  It is exhilarating to witness revival in South Tucson with all these fired-up believers!

The Christmas story of Mary bursting forth with child, no room at the inn, visited by worshipful shepherds brings the Scriptures to life for me at this huge mega church when I think of how they expand their capacity to make sure there's always room for one more.  We enthusiastically worship Jesus here, for indeed, each one of us is the reason Jesus came in this season to save us all.



Merry Christmas, everyone!





Comments

  1. RCUBEsDecember 20, 2024 at 7:28 PM

    Hi sister Mary! I haven't visited my blog in a while and tonight, I got excited that you posted a new one! How special that gathering was! After all, this special season is about the good Lord. And your grandkids are all grown-ups now! Thank you for sharing that special moment and sharing some pics of your beautiful family. It's good to see you! Merry Christmas and may this coming new year bring you lots of your heart's wishes to come true! Love you in Christ and stay strong in the Lord's mighty power! God bless, strengthen and protect you and your family always. Hugs...

    ReplyDelete
  2. ReginaDecember 21, 2024 at 3:40 PM

    Merry Christmas Mary! I was just thinking about you yesterday and I'm thrilled to see your post. You have a lovely family and please tell the young lady wearing the blue skirt if she gets tired of that adorable handbag I will be happy to take it off her hands.😅 I love purses!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Mevely317December 22, 2024 at 4:29 PM

    Merry Christmas, Mary! Thank you for sharing your special evening with us, and I love these images of your beautiful family.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Surprise at the Mall

I lost touch with a writer friend.  I missed her and her cheerful blog posts.  We met up in a most unusual way!  I’m still in awe of how it happened. I finished my shopping at the mall and took a short cut to get to the parking lot.  The path led me through the food court.  The smell of Chicken Fajitas stopped me in my tracks.  I planned lunch elsewhere, but now I followed my nose. I chewed my first bite of chicken taco salad when, out of nowhere, a loud redhead moved rapidly past the tables and into the booth with me.  “I know you !”  She shouted.  I pondered if I knew this crazy lady.  Did she mistake me for someone else?  She shouted louder and stuck her finger in my face:  “ You’re Mary; you have a blog called Pile of Smiles and you live in the Verde Valley .”   It took me a second to compose myself.  I stopped chewing my food.  I know I stared too long at her face and then she said:...
48 comments
Read more

Mama's Lipstick

I always wished I could do things with my mom like shop in the mall, share makeup secrets or go to the movies and watch romantic comedies.  My wish never materialized.     My mama behaved like a tomboy.   She loved baseball and pitched with a strong right arm.   She could care less about the latest fashion or the latest movies featured on the big screen.   She never polished her fingernails.    One day after elementary school, I walked into the house to find my mom all dolled up in front of the bathroom mirror, foundation crème, powder, eyebrow pencil and rouge all over the counter sink.  “Who are you?” I asked, thrilled to see my mama putting on the Ritz.  Makeup in place and blotted, she immediately took it off.  “I don’t like the way it feels,” she exclaimed. She retired in Arizona and protected her dry lips with a light rose lipstick, the color of natural lips, a step above ChapStick.  She wore it a few tim...
55 comments
Read more

Hitched to a Rough Road

Photo Credit:  Peggy James I got his email and wanted to shout:  “Hey, buster, does the phrase “continued behavior pattern” mean anything to you?  But I didn’t. Travis is at it again.  His email revealed a litany of complaints about our neighborhood, our country road, our board officers, bad decisions made that will cost him money , yada-yada-yada . Travis is a Christian brother but you’d never know it. He is a large, loud man who shoots his mouth off as often as he shoots his guns back here in the hills.  He interrupts at our road meetings and, like a typical hothead, he speaks truth but with a tone that makes me feel like I need to duck in case some of his words fly at me and smack me upside the face. I thought we were making progress, but we’re not. It is our rough road that brings us together .  Last year we picked up the neglected pieces of our road association.  We agreed to assemble once again to talk, make decisio...
37 comments
Read more