Pastoral Ponderings - December 18, 2025

It is a week before Christmas and there is music in the air.  Tomorrow afternoon we will celebrate the Sounds of Christmas with music, storytelling and Christmas goodies from 2:30 to 4:30 here in the sanctuary.  Our Sunday worship service the Fourth Sunday of Advent will be an explosion of music.  In addition to hymns and Christmas Carols, we will have a choir anthem, two selections presented by the Bells of Mill Woods United Church, two hand bell duets, and two piano solos from younger members of our church family.  Even in the midst of snowy Edmonton winter weather, I hope you will be able to join us as we bathe ourselves in the sounds of the season.

This will be my last Pastoral Ponderings for 2025.  As this year comes to a close I invite you to take time to reflect on what this year has been like for you.  Some have celebrated the birth of an addition to their family.  Some have gotten married.  Some have struggled with poor health, cancer or perhaps a chronic medical condition.  Some have struggled with mental health.  Others have struggled with addiction.  And some have experienced the pain of grief and loss that comes with the death of a loved one.  Whatever you have experienced and encountered in 2025, may you take a moment to acknowledge the impact of this year on your life; the joys and the sorrows, the successes and failures, the ups and downs on your journey of life.  And as you do so, may you offer a prayer of gratitude for your life, and for the relationships and communities that bring you worth, meaning and value.

My Ponderings will return in January after I return from Mexico the third week of January.  I look forward to us continuing to journey together as we say goodbye to 2025 and prepare to embrace the New Year.

Dale