On the eleventh day...

On the eleventh day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, eleven carols singing, ten folks a'calling, nine timeouts standing, eight whiffs o'gas, seven 'ssemblies a-swayin', six parties waiting, fiiiiiive rubber bouggies, four winds a'whipping, three trips to church, two whiny kids and a house outside the city.

Ahhh, the pre-Christmas combined worship service - meaning you contemporary young-ins sing what we sing for today - and we'll turn the heat up, too - 'cause our bones get the chill and you young-ins can just sweat...Can you tell that I'm mostly uncomfortable when I'm dropped out of my contemporary box and land in the middle of a traditional place very similar to the churches we all grew up in??? So, we sang our seemingly eleven Christmas carols and I'll wait with a happy heart for Chris to pull out the acoustic guitar at "hearth's edge" so we can sing our heart's desires to our Lord in our own home in our own way (which by the way this year will have to include Crowder's version of Feliz Navidad and "O Praise Him" seems to fit, too - gosh darned it) and I'll hang on until the new year with longing to again corporately worship and lead in worship without folks' eyes glued to the screen or buried in a hymnal...and by the way, a few of those Sundays, I'll be doing that, hopefully, from our home church in Fort Mill. I'm so excited I could just, well, ...

So, I'm thankful, that while we were all singing the seemingly eleven carols during the service today ultimately to worship God's awesomeness - one more of His children came into His arms - and if that girl could find Jesus, I can have a happy heart that God came to church today and that's ALL that ever matters...God showed up and we did, too, with the right hearts. Amen. He's so good even to "a wretch like me." I can never forget how my precious Savior came to "save a wretch like me." Yeah, AMEN.