Finding the Fold

And so on that Sunday morning, we got ourselves all ready, and Adrian and Dylan dropped us off outside the church. I was so nervous walking up to the door, but the door was opened by the most friendliest of men, who welcomed us into the church and directed us towards the chapel itself, where we were greeted again in the most friendly of manners, and Seren was given a strand of silver tinsel, while I was given a card with the word 'Moo!' on it.

One of the greeters explained that today was the family nativity service, where the entire congregation would be getting involved in the fun, and so we took our place in the 'animals' section of the pews.

I sat there with Seren, amid the hustle and bustle of parents settling their kids for the service, friends greeting each other and enquiring after each other, and children laughing and giggling and chatting between themselves, and I was amazed at just how at home I felt.

I stared around at the many people-filled pews, the twinkling Christmas tree on the raised pulpit area, the Christmas lights draped above the organ stall, and the instruments lying on the stage, waiting for the band to sit down to play them.

The whole atmosphere was welcoming, and that feeling only intensified as the service started. And we had a lot of fun in that service. It was led by two speakers, and as promised, pretty much all of the congregation got involved in that nativity! I, along with many other adults and children, was a cow. There were other animals like pigs, sheep and rabbits; and there were loads of Marys, Josephs, Shepherds and angels. Seren was an angel :o)

We all had to get dressed up in our costumes, which for the animals like myself, meant that we had to make ourselves a headband with cow ears attached and a cow nose which we tied on with string. Angels had white robes and tinsel to wear, and Seren happily trotted off with all the other angels (all strangers to her at this point!) and got herself ready. And all the Marys had blue robes to wear, and the shepherds had green robes and teatowels.

Me as a cow (taken after the service)

Seren as an angel

Me and my angel (a lovely lady sitting near us offered to take this photo of Seren and I together)

And we all had parts to play in the nativity. The Marys and Josephs had lines to say, and had to go up to the stage to say them, and so did the shepherds. And the angels had the coolest part of all! They regularly had to stand up and shout "SURPRISE!" for example, when they appeared to Mary to tell her that she would be bearing Jesus, and when they appeared to the shepherds to tell them of Jesus' birth. Seren LOVED doing that!

But my (and all the other animals!) starring moment was when we had to go up to the stage and sit on the front of the stage, in front of the stable, and sing Away in a Manger and make our animal sounds.

I sat there, amid all the other grinning 'animals', looking out at a beaming Seren, and at all the other smiling people in the congregation, and I just couldn't believe I was actually there! Actually taking part!

Both Seren and I were made to feel incredibly welcome, and the whole time I was in the church, I just couldn't believe how at home I felt. I had never been in the building in my life before, but from the second I stepped over the threshold, it was like ... coming home. I could feel my heart opening again, coming alive again, letting Jesus back in. I had to fight back the tears during the hymns, the words all rang so true, and spoke so strongly to me, piercing me right to the heart.

I never wanted the service to end, but of course, it did, and so Seren and I made our way through to the church hall for a cup of tea, where we met lots more friendly people. We bumped into the friendly man who had greeted us at the door, and when I asked him about the Christmas services coming up, he gave me a leaflet with them all on, and they sounded great! There was a regular service on the 13th, a Carols by Candlelight service on the 20th December, a Watchnight service on Christmas Eve, and a Family service on Christmas morning.

We walked back out to meet Adrian and Dylan, who were waiting for us in the car, and we were absolutely buzzing. Seren had enjoyed herself so much, and I was just over the moon at how much I had got out of the service, and I just knew that that day was the first day of the rest of my life.