Many hours of work went into our Christmas Eve Service.

But it was all worth it because the end result was a charming evening of song, drama and an opportunity for response.

‘The Perfect Tree’ was far from perfect.  As we prepared, it seemed much was against us…

Our live tree, a huge beautiful beast that smelled like Christmas and shed like a furry Newfoundland was absolutely PERFECT…until we actually rehearsed with it – three times the tree stand broke – even after the mastery of a brilliant welder – and we settled for a quickly grabbed artificial tree that had been left in the basement following the Ladies Social Christmas Dinner.  This was a mad dash of sweaty turn-around only minutes before the service started.

But how appropriate!  A ‘Perfect Lesson’ in ‘The Perfect Tree’…

The entire service was built upon this verse from Isaiah:

And so we did.  We laid aside our own ‘perfect’ vision, and allowed God to work through what we thought wasn’t good enough.

And the result?  You decide!

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Alanna Rusnak shares her life with her husband, three children, and a cat she’s trying hard not to love.  She has attended HMC for her entire life and been on staff since 2003, currently fulfilling the role of Creative Communications.  You can find her over at her own blog, SelfBinding Retrospect.