Church Mouse - January 2010

Hi my OPC friends,

As places go, a mouse couldn’t do much better than living in your church during the Christmas season. There are always plenty of gatherings with lots of Christmas goodies, delightful music by Beverly and the choir, and everyone is in the loving, giving spirit of the holiday. Every week the gifts under the Angel tree multiply which tells me Christmas is getting closer and lots of children are going to be very happy and surprised Christmas morning.

We started out this season the Sunday before Thanksgiving with the Hanging of the Greens. Sherry Simkins coordinated the event this year and all went very smoothly. Before we even were seated for the potluck, Tim Sholl and Nancy Ogne were busy hanging wreaths in the windows. Tim’s wife, Janet, was busy in the kitchen passing covered dishes out the pass through window to be placed on the buffet tables. My little pink mouth watered as I watched from the window sill at all the tasty entrees. Pastor Paul said grace and I found a place under the table to catch the crumbs. As soon as everyone was full, work began again.

Our little house of worship turned into a Christmas wonderland within the hour. The wall hangings of Bethlehem were hung with care as Berthlin assembled the Advent wreath on the altar. Ed Hickman and Frank Harris worked tirelessly trying to get the all the lights on the Chrismon tree working. Some ladies from the church had made some new Chrismon balls this year to go with the traditional ones that the children had made for us in years past. I pictured myself hiding in its branches behind all the gold and white trimmings on Christmas eve and seeing wonder and love in all your eyes as we celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, the reason for this season. Terese Coleman was asking for volunteers for the play and she got a good response.. I can’t wait to see how you all perform! Pretty soon, the room was transformed and everyone was busy putting ladders and boxes away. It always amazes me how well Christians work together and how quickly they can get a job done. It must be a higher power helping them out is all that I can figure out.

Pastor called us all forward to sit near the piano and sing our favorite carols, welcoming in another season of celebration of the birth of our Savior. I doubt anyone heard my little squeaky voice joining in, but I just couldn’t help myself. Soon it was time to put the hymnals away and turn out the lights. Our house of worship was ready to welcome in Christmas 2009.
After everyone left, I took a quick swim in the baptismal font as a young man named Alex had just been baptized that morning and some water was left behind. I thought maybe it would help to exercise off some of the calories that I had just taken in! Hope your holidays overflowed with blessings. Jesus truly is the greatest gift of all.

Happy New Year

Your church mouse,
Nosey