During Advent, we all excitedly look towards celebrating Jesus’s birth. However, suddenly it is December 26 and the world resets to its ordinary preoccupations. That’s what is wonderful about observing the Twelve Days of Christmas: it helps us keep reflecting on God’s grace and the miracle of Christmas after the busyness of Christmas Day is past.
We don’t want to simply know about a miracle that happened long ago and was forgotten thereafter. We need to know that there is a consistency in God’s care, too.
Christmas can arrive wrapped in lights and joy while grief, loss, and the sense that this world is deeply broken remain close at hand. The Gospel of Mark opens with “the beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ,” echoing creation itself and pressing an Advent question beneath all the decorations: What kind of beginning can Jesus bring to lives that do not feel whole?
Join us on December 24 at 7 pm on Christmas Eve as Little Hills — a special moment to prepare our hearts for Christmas Day. During the service we will share in the culmination of our journey through the Four Gospels telling of the Savior’s arrival. We will share in readings from God’s Word, singing Christmas carols and enjoy a candlelight service to celebrate that our Savior is born!
Join us and our friends at FaithTree partner churches for a continuous rotation of Christmas music, nostalgic fireplace scenes, meditations from Scripture and more throughout Christmas weekend and then all the way through Epiphany. Whether you want just a few moments of Christmas joy or want to watch the whole thing, it will be streaming 24x7 all Christmas week.
FaithTree has so much happening this Christmas and so do our local church friends. If you’re looking for the best ways to celebrate the season, check out these great opportunities.
O Christmas (Faith)Tree is something very special: a celebratory service at 7:00 p.m. on December 6 that interweaves favorite Christmas carols and songs — both old and new and in a range of styles — with the story of Christmas that runs from Genesis through Revelation.
God is with us — that’s what we celebrate at Christmastime! As we enter into this season, we are going to take time to look at the real, genuine gift of Christmas in contrast to the far less satisfying things that distract us from that beautiful gift.
We tend to assume God works through the right people, in the right places, with the right credentials. Isaiah 44–45 is genuinely jarring to our assumptions: the Lord names a pagan, idol-worshiping foreign king as the one who will restore His people to their land.
As we continue in Ephesians 2, Paul helps us to think about the difference between being called to do “good works” and earning God’s favor through our works.