Dec 9
Shout For Joy
by Graham Shovelton

I awoke to bright lights and a white room. I looked around and asked the nurse, “What time is it?” “8:30 a.m.,” he said. “Is it Tuesday or Wednesday?” “Tuesday.”

Thank God I’m Alive.

Just 36 hours before I had been singing on the Living Christmas Tree. Little did I know when I stepped off the tree after our final presentation that year, 1988, that I would suffer a heart attack that would lead me to a lifesaving 7-bypass operation. That was just days before Christmas, but the cardiac surgeon said, “Don’t worry. We’ll have you home for Christmas.”

Christmas Eve came and the last wires were removed. At 4 p.m. I walked out of Huntsville Hospital, elated that I would spend Christmas Day with my family, seated at my usual place at the head of the table.

I thank God for bringing me through the darkness.

And thank you God for allowing me to sing another 10 years on the tree telling of your Son’s birth and his message of grace and hope.

As we celebrate Christmas 2009 and the Silver Anniversary of The Living Christmas Tree, the message of Christ’s birth is resounding from the tree to a world which may have forgotten the message.

Psalm 81 expresses to me what the tree has and does mean to me.

Shout for joy to God our defender; sing praise to the God of Jacob. Start the music and beat the tambourines; play pleasant music on the harps and lyres. Psalm 81:1-2