Christmas Comes but Once a Year

As my eyes connected with the old woman weeping in her wheelchair, I couldn't help but wonder where her life had taken her all these years. Had she been married? Did she have children? Is she now all alone? My voice cracked as I struggled to sing the Christmas songs for which we had come to sing.

You see, a little while ago Katie and I joined the student choir here at Les Cedres with about 20 other students. Every week we've been meeting after class to practice three different Christmas songs in French. It's been a little bit of a struggle, but it has been good. On Wednesday this week we went to a nearby retirement home and sang for all the people there. It was a wonderful experience that I know we'll cherish all season long. It was great just to connect with people who probably don't get very many visitors. I spoke with one gentleman who used to drive a bus up and down the streets of Paris. He lived there all his life, and now he sits in a retirement home... waiting... He says the food is pretty good most of the time, especially in the afternoons. He said he liked our songs.

It's great that we all could go as a big group and share Christ's love at a time of the year when people tend to feel the loneliest. It's too bad, though, that Christmas comes but once a year...