Christmas Tea

If you know me much, you'll know that I love "tea". I don't necessarily mean that I love tea, the drink, so much as I love "taking" tea. I love the idea of tea and the loveliness of the ceremony of tea...even if it's a cup of tea in my mom's kitchen, just the two of us drinking out of old mugs. There's just something about sharing a cup of tea with a good friend.

I especially love Christmas teas. It became a tradition for the ladies of my home church - where I was raised - to have a Christmas tea each December. After I moved away, I made my attempt at having a Christmas Tea for the ladies of my new church in Arizona. It didn't stick....meaning that it's not a tradition now, but we did enjoy it more than once. And in our New Hampshire church, there was also a ladies tea in the fall. So I was excited to learn that our church here hosts a Ladies' Christmas Tea each year!

Yesterday I had the privilege of attending this tea and it was a special blessing. There were two sittings - morning and afternoon - and approximately 300 ladies in attendance! Wow! The dwarfs the numbers at all previous teas I've been to. Everything was beautifully decorated, and the piano and violin played lovely Christmas music. But the best part of the tea was the talk given by a member of our church, a woman who has struggled with cancer for the last year and has been a faithful example to us. She gave a clear gospel message as she related her testimony. What a blessing to hear how the Lord has worked in her life, drawing her out of her sinful state into a right and blessed relationship with Himself. I heard that the message was recorded...if they put it up on our church website, I will add the link here. You don't want to miss it!

And the conversation at our table after the message was so encouraging. I happened to be seated with a number of women who are not members of my church, so I didn't know any of them. But it was a joy to get to know them a little bit and to hear of how God is working in their lives to draw them closer to Himself and to be encouraged by their examples to trust Him in all things.

Tea is always enjoyable for me, but tea...at Christmas...with the good news being spread...is even better!