These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. – Deuteronomy 6:6-7
In November, I celebrated 13 years of working for St. Luke’s. When I started, I was working at the Children’s Center and overseeing the nursery on Sunday mornings. It was already close to the holidays and I noticed that there were lots of things going on.
I was asked to work in the Nursery on Christmas Eve that first year. I was a little apprehensive about what to expect and how many children we would have. Not only had I never worked a Christmas Eve, I had never attended a Christmas Eve Service.
I remember that we didn’t have very many children in the nursery for the Family Service; most of them were with their families in the Sanctuary. I decided that I would sit in on the Family Service and share the experience with them. What I experienced that night was magical. The festively decorated church, the beautiful Christmas music, and the amazing sermon just brought the Christmas story to life for me.
At the end of the service, the lights were dimmed, candles were lit, and we all joined in singing Silent Night. The moment was so moving, it brought me to tears.
I had never experienced anything like that before. After it was over, I went back to the nursery. All through the rest of the night, the service stayed on my mind and put a smile on my face. I knew that this was something that had to be experienced more than once in a lifetime.
When I left that night, I knew that all of my family needed to have the same experience that I had. I was going to make sure that next Christmas, we all would have the Christmas Eve experience. And we did, that next Christmas Eve; my children and husband were there with me to witness the magic of that service.
Since that year, we have attended every Christmas Eve service. We are now a permanent fixture at the Edmond Campus and celebrated its first Christmas Eve service in a school cafeteria with glow sticks. We’ve added a few spouses and grandchildren to our family, but it is still a tradition to attend Christmas Eve service together, a tradition that I hope will continue for generations.
Gabrielle Moon, Executive Director St. Luke’s Children’s Centers
