My Grandmother’s Church

I will never forget how she instilled in me the true reason for the season and her deep love of Jesus Christ.

Christmas trees, shopping, Santa, and all the presents under the tree are some of our favorite Christmas traditions. One of my favorite Christmas traditions growing up was going to church with my grandma on Christmas Eve. My grandmother’s church was a tiny Pentecostal church with just a piano and 5 rows of pews. It had an attendance board and most Sundays the attendance was between 14-25. On Christmas Eve this tiny church would put on a very low budget play of the birth of Jesus. The small congregation would play the roles and my grandmother and the other ladies in the church would sew the costumes. On Christmas Eve the church was full. People packed into the pews and men in overalls, with their hat in their work stained hands, would stand all around the church. Often times you could hear the barking of hunting dogs in the bed of the pickup trucks in the parking lot. The point was everyone in Board Camp and Polk County (yes that is the small Arkansas town where my mother grew up and my grandma lived) would come to see the recreation of the birth of Jesus. My grandma had a profound influence on me. I miss her so much but I know she is with Jesus. I will never forget how she instilled in me the true reason for the season and her deep love of Jesus Christ.