I was reminded this morning of one of the best moments of our Christmastime travels - the Christmas Eve service that Steph and I went to in the Woodlands.
The Fellowship of the Woodlands church - a megachurch - had 20+ pre-Christmas services across 4 difference campuses. The last one was held at the "Chapel in the Woods" at their Woodlands location at 11 PM on Christmas Eve. So, after we put the kids down, we stayed up long enough to go. And I'm so glad we did.
It was a beautiful building, this Chapel in the woods. There's obviously a lot of money that has gone into the church and the chapel was a reflection of that. Simple architecture, huge glass windows, awesome A/V system (their TVs were mounted on these devices that rolled in/out of the walls), sat about 300. And it was completely full.
The service consisted of Christmas carols sung by all, solo and choir performances, and few brief messages by their Guy Smiley-pastor. He was a little creepy, but said some nice things.
The solo performances were, by far, the best thing about the service. This one lady sang "O Come Emanuel" and it was haunting. I felt like I was there, in Bethlehem, the night that baby Jesus was born and this was a poor woman's proclamation. She sang it with such emotion. It was stunning. Their version of "O Holy Night" was good, too, but not as good Emanuel.
Steph and I left feeling great and making a commitment to each other that no matter what, we need to make a tradition out of going to the Christmas Eve service every year. It just reminds us of the true meaning behind Christmas - Christ's love for us. It is amazing. Much more amazing than any gifts we could give each other and all of the other hoopla surrounding this time of the year.
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