The Big Sandy Mountaineer -

The Christmas Eve Services, in Big Sandy, for you to choose from are: The Catholic Church is having three candle light local Christmas Eve services; Big Sandy at 6; Box Elder at 8; and Rocky Boy at 10:00. Christ Lutheran will have a candle lit service starting at 5:30 with special music. Big Sandy Community Church of God will have a candle light service at 6 p.m. with Pastor Erik Sietsma preaching from Mathew. Grace Lutheran is also having a candle light service starting at 5:00 with lots of special music. Pastor Rich Jespersen will be preaching from Luke 2:1-20. The Methodist church is having service Sunday morning like usual, but not having one on Christmas Eve.

Christmas Eve is my favorite worship service. I love the candle light, the music, and the miracle of the season. However last Christmas Eve it was just too cold and I didn’t want to drive in the dark to go to town to celebrate Christmas Eve at church, so I did something I’ve never done before. When I was in Zambia I bought a nativity set made out of scraps of wood and material left over from other projects. He was an older man and I watched as he made, another set by hand with primitive tools in hoping to make a little money to take care of his family. He was from the Tongan tribe. I took that nativity set out to the goat barn along with a blanket, flashlight, my bible and decided to read scripture out loud about the night of Jesus’s birth. The goats wondered what I was up to, they came over to me and smelled the nativity set. I’m sure they thought I was bringing them something to eat. I was surrounded by goats. They smelled all around and then made goat nibbles on my coat and blanket. After I was through reading I sat there in the silence, in the cold barn with very little light but lots of goats and for the first time actually experiencing what it must have been liked to have the shepherds arrive. It was humbling, inspirational and to be honest hilarious! I had never thought too much about how the animals might have acted to His birth, but I’m sure that it wasn’t too different from my own experience. May we pick a Christmas Eve service and celebrate the miracle.