Come Emmanuel

Children’s Message
Sunday, December 21, 2008


Every Wednesday, the staff starts our morning with prayer together. We read a Psalm and another scripture lesson, we sing hymns, we hear about, and pray for, Presbyterians in another part of the country or the world, and perhaps most importantly, we pray. We pray for our work in the church, we pray for the world, we pray for the sick, and we pray for you. We go through all of the members alphabetically twice each year. We just started at “A” again this week, so between now and June, you all will be prayed for again by our staff.

Now we all take turns leading prayers, and a week and a half ago, it was my turn. Normally, we sit where the choir sits, but that morning, everybody sat in the first few pews, and I was standing right here. And we sang the hymn that we began our worship with this morning, “O Come, O Come Emmanuel”. I stood here as we sang and I looked down the aisle and out the front doors. It was one of those postcard mornings—a light snow was falling as cars sped by on East Avenue. And it was one of those moments when everything just felt right. As we sang, “Fill the whole world with heaven’s peace” I wanted to freeze everything—to hit the pause button on the day, because, I felt in the Advent spirit.

This sure is a fun week coming up. Maybe a celebration at school, certainly a whole slew of services here at church, probably family coming over—food, presents, parties and games. I bet that this week you will have a few moments when you will want to hit the pause button—freeze the whole world and enjoy the spirit of the moment.

Christ is coming—the day is almost here! O come, O come Emmanuel!

Let’s pray: Loving God
As we wait
As we celebrate
Help us to experience
The joy of Christ’s coming.
Amen.