Second Church Steps

Christmas decorations are up everywhere.  It is now “okay” to have trees, tinsel, and carols up front and center.  These are signs of the times, and a way that we prepare our homes and hearts to celebrate the birth of Jesus.   Music is a BIG part of the holidays for me. When I was pregnant with my first child, one Christmas carol could reduce me to tears.  Every time!  I’ve sung it for over half a century.  It is part of my Christmas narrative, and owns me in some way.  It is “Away in a Manger.” Away in a manger, no crib for his bed, the little Lord Jesus laid down his sweet head. The stars in the bright sky looked down where he lay, the little Lord Jesus asleep on the hay. [i] The part that always got me is the “no crib for his bed.”  He didn’t even have a crib!  What kind of world is it that a baby has to sleep in the dirt? Yes, I was a bit dramatic.  Still…it is a lasting understanding that children should be held and...

“Oh there’s no place like home…” Christmas music could be heard in my house, growing up, the day after Thanksgiving.  This signaled the start of the Advent/Christmas season. You see, Christmas music was forbidden until after Thanksgiving; even today from Texas and Kansas City my children are the enforcers of my mother's rule!  More often than not that first song would have been Perry Como’s   rendition of   Oh, there’s no place like home for the holidays…   As Second Presbyterian Church transitions from the theme of “home” into the holiday season—we decorate our Second Home early.  We do this because we are preparing to take the Good News of the Advent/Christmas season out into the world through the Christmas Benevolence church wide program. The  Deacon’s Christmas Benevolence , CB, works with social service agencies to select 140+ families, that's 700+ people, to serve.  The entire church works together to make it possible for...