Communion and Community

We did something different this year on Christmas Eve.

In years past, we have visited my parents and my sister and had our Christmas with them on Christmas Eve.  This year we did that on the Sunday before Christmas.

On Christmas Eve, we were just kind of lazy and enjoyed the day.  My son had football workouts that morning because improvement doesn’t take a holiday.  You can quote me on that one if you want to.

Then we capped it off with something we have never done.

We went to our church and did what is called “From the Cradle to the Cross.”

From about 2 p.m. until 7 p.m. anyone could go at their convenience and take communion.  If you’re Baptist like me, you could have the Lord’s Supper.

It was a really neat time to sit and reflect with my family on the fact that Christmas is about a baby who grew up to sacrifice Himself so that our sins would be paid and we would have eternal life.  And a lot more is wrapped up in all of that, but I don’t try to get too theological in these posts.

So, when I say what I’m about to say, I don’t want it to sound critical.  I really enjoyed taking the bread and the juice.  I really did.

But not as much as I could have.

Here’s the deal.  I used a word earlier.  It’s a word that I always thought was strange.  I  didn’t like using it.  Why?  Because I was a Baptist and Baptists weren’t supposed to like this word.  At least they weren’t supposed to in my mind.

Communion.

Sure, I was able to share this experience with my family, but I was not able to share it with the larger church family.

Communion ties into my One Word for last year.  Communion is something that is meant to be done in community with your brothers and sisters.  It is community coming together or a common union.

So, I did enjoy sharing that with my wife and kids.  But I look forward to it even more with my church family.

I look forward to communion with them.

Do you think about community when you take communion?

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