Leaving it Behind

Merry Christmas to all . . . and to all a good night!

Just kidding, it's only 12:45. In the spare moments I have between morning festivities and when family arrives this afternoon, I wanted to record something I realized yesterday. Last night I played guitar and led singing for one of our church's two Christmas eve services. The service was at 5pm, and was advertised as a kid-friendly service. We had some kids read a poem, sung a couple fun songs for them, and the service was a bit shorter than usual. One of the songs that we sang was Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. The woman that runs the Children's ministry at our church wrote a Christmassy second verse for it. It was so cute. Not just that, the whole service. We sung Hark the Herald Angels sing, and they had given all the kids angels wings and told them to dance in the aisles during the song. Can anyone think of anything cuter than our pastor's three year old daughter dancing around the building wearing her pink Christmas dress and angels wings? She even decided to come to the front during her rounds.

But the thing I realized that was so funny actually has to do with the song Twinkle Twinkle. Ok, what in the world could be profound about Twinkle Twinkle? Nothing to my knowledge, this isn't profound. Eight years ago this December, my mom was running the Children's service at our church on Christmas eve. Each class was doing something different, and some of the younger kids were going to sing Twinkle Twinkle. My mom needed to find someone to play guitar for the kids while they sang. So I decided that I was going to take out her old guitar and learn how to play Twinkle Twinkle. Let me tell you, I definitely did not play for the kids on Chistmas eve. C F and G are dang hard chords for a 12-year-old's hands! But I was inspired, and that inspiration stuck.

So here I am, eight years later leading singing at our church on Christmas eve, and what song do we sing? Twinkle Twinkle. The song that started at all. And for that, I owe a debt of gratitude. Thank you, Twinkle Twinkle. You have changed my life in some obscure way.