IT was a cold, misty and rainy Christmas morning when I arrived at a neighborhood church to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. There was no sign of a single living creature in the 500 seat church hall. I was puzzled and wondered if I had come at the right time. Then, I spotted an elderly figure in the chapel at the far end of the right church wing. As I walked towards them, the tapping sound of my steps echoed loudly in the empty sanctuary. Suddenly, a chill ran down my spine. For once, I felt lonely in the church on a Christmas morning.<\/p>\n
I sat and paused in the midst of 20 worshippers to give thanks for the birth of a living God and to eagerly anticipate his second coming. As I knelt and received the Holy Communion elements, the feeling of anticipation welled up from within. The reading from the gospel John 1:1-14 reminded me of the vulnerable child in the manger, the God of the impossible, became flesh and lived in this world. I stood in awe of a God who made the impossible become possible in the history of humanity. That\u2019s why the entire world rejoices and celebrates the miracle.<\/p>\n
On one hand, I was impressed by the grey haired believers who faithfully arrived 15 minutes before the service. I know none of them. Their attendance on such a cold Christmas morning was worthy of praise. On the other hand, I was wondering where were their children? Why didn\u2019t they join the family occasion? The two priests were much younger than the congregation. They led the liturgical service well. I was reminded of the coming King as I walked away and enjoyed a morning walk in the park nearby, pondering on a very unique service on Christmas morning.<\/p>\n
Kong Ching, London, UK<\/span><\/strong><\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"IT was a cold, misty and rainy Christmas morning when I arrived at a neighborhood church to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. There was no sign of a single living creature in the 500 seat church hall. I was puzzled and wondered if I had come at the right time. Then, I spotted an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":48980,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[181,182,10],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scaccmm.sarawakmethodist.org\/new\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18173"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scaccmm.sarawakmethodist.org\/new\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scaccmm.sarawakmethodist.org\/new\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scaccmm.sarawakmethodist.org\/new\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scaccmm.sarawakmethodist.org\/new\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18173"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/scaccmm.sarawakmethodist.org\/new\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18173\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scaccmm.sarawakmethodist.org\/new\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/48980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scaccmm.sarawakmethodist.org\/new\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scaccmm.sarawakmethodist.org\/new\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scaccmm.sarawakmethodist.org\/new\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}