Unexpected Blessings

 December 24, 2022

Yesterday I wrote about disappointment, about plans that are changed without notice, and how difficult it can be to adjust once we have our minds set on a particular course of action. I had the opportunity to put my money where my mouth is today. Our 11:00 Christmas Eve service was cancelled due to the weather, and I was bummed. 11:00 Christmas Eve has been a tradition! I agree with Tevye: “Tradition! Without our traditions our lives would be as shaky as a fiddler on the roof.”

I didn’t want to miss out on Christmas Eve altogether, so I decided to go to our 4:00 service, and I am so glad we went. The music was heavenly, the service simple, clearly proclaiming Jesus as Savior and Lord. As we sang, Psalm 150 came to mind: 

“Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet, 

praise him with the harp and lyre, 

praise him with timbrel and dancing, 

praise him with the strings and pipe, 

praise him with the clash of cymbals, 

praise him with resounding cymbals. 

Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord.”

—Psalm 150:3-6 

Sometimes words aren’t adequate for our prayers. As we sang, my disappointment and irritation at changed plans melted away and praise welled up within me. I didn’t know it then, but it was going to get even better before the evening was done.

After the service ended, we had dinner at Matt and Jeanine’s, then drove to Nate’s for the cousin gift exchange. When the 11:00 service was cancelled, I didn’t originally plan on the 4:00 service, so I had put together the items for communion, and after the cousins opened their gifts, Nate got out his guitar and I my bass. It is an awesome and humbling experience to have our kids and grandkids, plus assorted boyfriends and adopted family members sitting around the living room in the candlelight singing Christmas carols. It was even more awesome to serve each of them communion, remembering together the reason Jesus came into this world—our salvation and deliverance from our sins. 

Much like Mary and Joseph’s last minute journey and the unplanned stay in a stable culminated in the birth of our Lord, today’s canceled service turned out to be the greater blessing of the day.