Christmas 2011

This year we continued our annual tradition at Atria Tamalpais Creek senior living community with our 2011 Christmas Eve service. We again had good numbers from both the community and our church, and packed out the community’s main living room. It’s always a joy to be able to spend time with the residents, who always greet us with such a warm welcome.

In this year’s service we heard Christmas according to Luke, focusing on Scripture reading’s from Luke’s gospel. Pastor Reid preached a short message from the Song of Mary in Luke 1:46-55, calling unbelievers to trust in Christ and for believers to continue in joining with the saints of old in their praise and thanksgiving. We were blessed to again have Audrey Young play piano for the service. The service concluded with a room of lit candlelights as we sung Go Tell It On The Mountain and Joy to the World. This year’s bulletin can be found here.

After the service, we gathered as a church at the Behnen home and enjoyed quite a spread of food, drinks, and deserts in a nice fellowship meal. The Behnen’s had put together a fun pictogram-like quiz of various Christmas carols, which was enjoyed by all. It was a wonderful time to continue the celebration as a church family.

The next day we held our Christmas day service on the actual day of Christmas. This was different than usual, as we normally do not have a service on Christmas Day, but since this year Christmas fell on a Sunday, we had the joy to gather together again. Pastor Reid spoke on Matthew 2:13-15 in a sermon titled Out of Egypt. We were exhorted to enjoy the freedom won by Christ, even as he tasted himself of the slavery and trials so often found in this life. After the service we had a brief but encouraging time of fellowship, and then all departed, surely off to more Christmas celebrations with family and friends.

We thank the Lord for his continued blessings even as we enjoyed together again this year a wonderful time to reflect on the first advent of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

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