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Tiffany Colllins, Ava Claire and Jenni Collins put the finishing touches on the Farmhouse Café tree. (JOYANNA LOVE | ADVERTISER)

The Thorsby High School band perform at the Christmas tree lighting event. (JOYANNA LOVE | ADVERTISER)

The Thorsby High School band perform at the Christmas tree lighting event. (JOYANNA LOVE | ADVERTISER)

Musicians from Thorsby High School play Christmas carols at the event. (JOYANNA LOVE | ADVERTISER)

The Thorsby First Baptist Praise Team sings at the event. (JOYANNA LOVE | ADVERTISER)

Bro. William Kee of Collins Chapel Baptist Church gives a Christmas devotional. (JOYANNA LOVE | ADVERTISER)

The Thorsby Christmas tree is lit. (JOYANNA LOVE | ADVERTISER)

By JOYANNA LOVE | Managing Editor

The city of Thorsby had a good turnout for its first Christmas tree lighting event in Richard Wood Park on Nov. 27.

Fittingly held on the first day of Advent, the event featured Christmas music performed by the Thorsby High School band and the Thorsby First Baptist praise band as well as a presentation by the Bethel Drama Team.

Many community businesses also decorated trees placed along the walking path for attendees to enjoy.

Organizer and City Council member Tonya Ray said the hope is for the tree lighting to become an annual event.

Bro. William Kee of Collins Chapel Baptist Church presented a Christmas devotional just prior to the lighting of the tree. He read from John 1, which states Jesus is God and has been with God since the beginning.

“During this time of year, it is easy to get caught up in just the sentiment of the time of the year, the nostalgia,” Kee said. “… We get caught up in all of these sentimental things, and we forget why we even celebrate. If Jesus is not God, then the manger is just another child. If Jesus is not God, then all we have is sentiment and nostalgia (and) then all men are dead in their sin.”

Kee presented the hope that is outlined in the Bible in the book of John that Jesus is God and the Light of the World.

“Christmas is much, much more than looking at times gone past or … the wonders of that celebration of family and friends,” Kee said.

He said Christmas marks the beginning of Jesus’ earthly life that would end with “the great gift on Calvary and the incredible mystery of the resurrection,” so that now “we know we are sinners hopelessly lost in the wrath of God were it not for the blood of Jesus that can save and restore all.”

He encouraged those present to shine the light that they have been given by Jesus to those who do not know him, not just this season, but all year long.

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