Union Hill Baptist
by Mickey Bigbie

The Sunday morning service began with the lighting of the Advent Candle of Joy by the Masters family. As we all joined in the Christmas carols, it was a special, wonderful service. Brother Bill's message about God's greatest gift was taken from John 3:14-21. How marvelous is this time of the year when we can envelop ourselves in the celebration of the birth of our Savior.

The ladies dinner was a lovely success as forty-two women shared an evening of great food, catered by Traditions, an inspiring devotional by Diana Morris, beautiful songs from Jamie Shultz and fun and games provided by Janie Shinn. It was a night of super fellowship for the women.

We, at Union Hill, invite you to other upcoming events scheduled for the Christmas season. Senior Moments will be tonight, Thursday the 20th, at the church. This will be their Christmas get-together so you don't want to miss it. It starts at 7:00 p.m. The Christmas Cantata will be held on Sunday evening, December 23rd. Bring your family and friends for a wonderful musical evening. We also want you to join us at the church on New Year's Eve beginning at 6:30 p.m. for dinner, movie and games. What better way to welcome in the New Year than with the family at Union Hill!

This time I close with a little story. A long time ago, in a small East Texas town, lived a little girl with her mother and her grandmother. Times were hard and money was scarce. As meager as their existence was, the two women always provided for the little girl. On Christmas morning the child would find that Santa had stopped at the little one-room apartment to leave a small brown bag in which she would find an apple, an orange, some nuts and a wonderful stick of peppermint candy. Each year, the jolly old man in the red suit would find the little girl, wherever she was, for they moved a lot and there were many little one-room homes.

Then, one year to her joy, she found next to the usual bag of goodies, a beautiful little doll with brown pig-tails sitting in a little red rocker! It was just the most beautiful doll she had ever seen. Holding her wonderful gift, she felt she must certainly be the richest little girl in the whole world. Months later, she overheard her mother and grandmother talking about how much the sacrifice they had made was well worth every penny just to see the joy on their little girl's face. She kept thinking about what she'd heard and though she never spoke of it, she understood about the sacrifice they'd made for her and finally began to see that her beautiful little doll was the result of that sacrifice.

Years later, during one of the many moves, the little doll with the brown pig-tails was lost, never to be seen again but the memory of that loving sacrifice remained vivid in the child's mind. There were other Christmases of course, but never one so special.

As time went on, childhood became an uphill struggle for the little girl, with many disappointments and many long, lovely hours. Seven years later, thanks to a loving and devoted Sunday school teacher, the little girl found the answer to her fearful, dreary existence, she found Jesus, sweet, sweet wonderful Jesus who to her amazement had made an even greater sacrifice for her, just a poor lost little girl, no one special, no one you would even notice. That sweet baby Jesus had grown up and died on the cross for her.

Understanding what she was being offered, the little girl accepted Jesus as her Lord and Savior and knew at that time, that no matter how hard the situation or how scared she got, she would never ever be alone again. There were still tough times, but He was always there to help, to understand, to love and to forgive. He still is. I was that little girl and He gave me hope and strength. He's never forsaken me, no matter what has happened through the years. I pray that the joy that I feel every day is your joy too. My heart overflows with thankfulness to the One whose birthday we celebrate this Christmas season. May God bless each of you and keep you safe, and may you have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. See you on the hill.