Author Note 1: I'm a Christian, and that becomes blindingly obvious in this first chapter when they go to church services. Then the religious themes mostly go back to the background where they've always been – the compassion, trust, forgiveness, second chances, self-sacrifice and hope that form the backdrop for these stories. No one turns into a Bible-thumper, but God does come up once in a while from now on.

Author Note 2: This is part of a series, and the relationships and events from previous stories matter in this story. This story will make more sense if you've read:
"Queen Elsa's Councilor"
"A Touch of True Love"
"The Unlikely Heroes of Arendelle"

Author Note 3: Arendelle and most of these characters belong to Disney; I'm just borrowing them. Thanks, Disney!

Chapter 1 – A Christmas Sermon

"You look beautiful!" Anna gushed when she saw Elsa in her Christmas gown, which was deep red, trimmed with cream ribbon. Her pale blonde braid fell over her shoulder, sparkling with ice diamonds. Her hands were bare.

"You look beautifuller!" Elsa replied, smiling happily.

Anna laughed as she twirled, the green skirt flaring and her red braids flying. Anna's green dress had pink flowers embroidered over the bodice and fitted sleeves with lace cuffs. She and Elsa had chosen dresses that were more simple than ornate for the Christmas party in Arendelle Village later today. They didn't want to overwhelm the villagers, or draw too much attention.

Olaf ran between them towards the grand staircase. "Christmas!" he shouted. He bounced down the stairs, shouting "Christmas!" on every bounce.

"I hope he gets all his noise done with before Bishop Saholt starts services," Anna said as they followed Olaf down the stairs.

Kristoff was waiting for them at the bottom of the stairs. He'd finally moved into the castle, although he'd flatly refused the suite Anna wanted to give him in the same wing of the castle where the Councilors had rooms. Instead, he'd moved into the quarters used by the other Castle Guards who didn't have homes in Arendelle Village, shrugging off Anna's indignation that his room was the size of her closet. At least he was sleeping indoors.

Then the royal tailors had descended on him, repeating the refrain "Queen's orders" until he finally gave in and let them do what they wanted to do. He was wearing the result this morning. His brown trousers were tucked into black knee boots. The darker brown jacket with tails sported shoulder epaulettes and gold braid, tokens of his recent military heroism. He wore a dark gold necktie over a cream colored shirt and vest. The effect was quite striking with his brown eyes and blonde hair, which was still cut short.

Anna stared at him so hard that she tripped on the bottom stairs and he caught her. As they got lost in each other's eyes, Elsa wondered if that was really an accident. It was beginning to be a little bit difficult to spend much time around Anna and Kristoff without feeling like she was intruding on private moments.

"You look so handsome!" Anna said, fingering his necktie. "How did you get that tied right?"

"Bern," Kristoff admitted.

"What am I being accused of?" Bern asked, approaching from the direction of the Councilors' wing of the castle.

"Helping me figure out this get-up," Kristoff said.

"You look nice too, Bern," Anna said.

"Thank you, Anna. That's a beautiful dress," Bern said, bowing good morning. He wore a dark blue jacket with his Council ribbons and sash. The lighter blue shirt under the jacket matched his trousers, and he wore a black ascot. His gray eyes looked blue this morning, and his black hair curled over his forehead.

"Oh, yeah, it is a really pretty dress, Anna," Kristoff added. "You're always beautiful, even if I forget to say so."

"You look very nice this morning too. Merry Christmas," Bern said to Elsa.

She smiled politely at him and replied, "Merry Christmas." The other Councilors had all gone home for Christmas, and she hadn't expected to see Bern this morning. But of course, she knew why Bern avoided going home. She looked away self-consciously, vaguely ashamed of her behavior. They'd had such wonderful conversations the day after the Battle of Arendelle, and ever since then she'd frozen him out. He was back to calling her 'your Majesty,' and she was careful to never be around him alone. Bern cared for her, and she didn't reciprocate his feelings.

"Do you like my tie? Bern tied it for me!" Olaf announced. He'd found a red scrap of fabric, and Bern had looped it around his neck and fastened it with a gold stickpin.

"It's a good thing you're here, Bern," Anna said.

"Thank you," Bern said, but he didn't smile.

"Should we get to the chapel? We wouldn't want to be late for services on Christmas morning," Kristoff suggested, offering Anna his arm.

Anna took it in both hands. "Whenever Elsa gets there is right on time."

"True," Kristoff agreed with a laugh as he escorted Anna away, Olaf running ahead of them.

"Your Majesty," Bern said formally, offering her his arm.

"It's still all right to call me Elsa when it's just family around," Elsa said, laying her bare hand on his sleeve as lightly as she could without outright rejecting his offer.

"Elsa, then. I'm sorry," he said, looking straight ahead as he escorted her to the chapel.

Elsa nodded, but she didn't ask what he was referring to. They walked in silence to the chapel. After they'd all lit a candle by the crèche, Bern escorted Elsa to the front pew, where Kristoff and Anna were already seated. Anna was tucked into the crook of Kristoff's arm, as close to him as she could get without actually sitting on his lap. Elsa sat down, and with a tip of her head, invited Olaf to sit next to her. He scooted over and landed between Elsa and Bern, still bouncing with Christmas cheer.

Last night's Mass on Christmas Eve was the annual formal service involving candles, chanting and kneeling in prayer. Bishop Saholt had placed the Christ child in the nativity, and read the Bible's account of Christ's birth. Elsa picked up as much as she could from watching Anna, and didn't make any obvious mistakes as she participated in the sacred ritual for the first time since youngest childhood.

This Christmas morning service was less formal, and even less well-attended. Elsa had told the servants to spend the holiday at home. With the exception of a few servants who had nowhere else to go, there was hardly anyone else in the castle. Elsa stole a glance at Bern and wondered where he had been on Christmas Eve.

After singing "Adeste Fidelis," Bishop Saholt came to the pulpit, wearing his Lutheran vestments and white clerical collar. He greeted them and opened his Bible, announcing that he would take his text from First John, Chapter 4, verse 8: "God is love."

Olaf bounced harder. "God's a love expert too!" he said in an excited whisper.

When Elsa smiled at Olaf to soften the 'shush' she accidentally caught Bern's eye as he did the same thing. He looked away first. Elsa laced her fingers together and felt ashamed of herself. Bern had been kind to her; he'd gone out of his way to help Kristoff learn castle life; he helped Olaf with his tie. Not only that, he did a good job as a councilor, even taking extra assignments because he was always available. The only thing Bern had done wrong was to have the poor judgment to fall in love with her. Now she was sitting a few inches away from him and trying to avoid him while she listened to Bishop Saholt talk about love.

"Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us," Bishop Saholt read from the Bible and then looked up. "First, we accept God's love. Only then can we truly love one another as God intended. In love, as in all matters, we follow His perfect example. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. How does God love us? Is it a love laced with expectations? Of course not. God's love is a gift. He loves us for who we are right now; perfect acceptance accompanies perfect love."

Elsa blinked back tears, still staring at her hands in her lap. She'd struggled so hard with expectations; she'd spent her life trying to be the good girl she always had to be. There was an ideal version of herself just out of sight. If only she could become that ideal Elsa, then she could relax and believe people could love her. The idea of a love without expectations was foreign to her.

"Why is this so hard to accept?" Bishop Saholt continued. "We doubt God's ability to accept us as we are, but only because we struggle to accept ourselves as we are. Our love is not perfect, but God's is."

That put a new twist on her expectations for herself. She was the one rejecting this flawed, human version of Elsa, not God. He wasn't waiting for her to become that imaginary, ideal Elsa before he loved her.

"The enemy of love is not hate; it is fear. Fear has no place in God's perfect love, either in God's love for us, or in the love we should feel for each other. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. What is this fear that contaminates our ability to love each other? We all have a fear that torments us. Name yours. Is it fear of rejection? Fear of failure? Fear of success?" Bishop Saholt looked around the sparse congregation with a fatherly smile.

"I don't condemn any of you; I have no right to cast the first stone. I have my own fears, just as any of you do. I have learned that only the perfect love of God can cast out fear. Indeed, God's perfect love breaks through at the point of our deepest fear, transforming it into such perfect trust that we are compelled to acknowledge the hand of God in this most private miracle."

Prickles were racing up the back of Elsa's neck. Her powers were the source of her greatest fear. Fear sparked uncontrollable outbursts of ice and snow that wrought destruction. From Anna she'd learned that love and acceptance were the only way to control her powers. And here was Bishop Saholt confirming everything she'd learned. God was helping her, and she hadn't even noticed it. She'd thought all that love was coming from Anna. But of course, Anna was getting all that love from somewhere herself. Anna's ability to sacrifice herself for the people she loved was a powerful connection to the perfect love of God.

She looked at her hands again. God's perfect love breaks through at the point of our deepest fear. It wasn't just her powers. Her deepest fear was that because of her powers, she would never truly be part of the human race, that she would always be cut off from the people around her. And yet she remembered those flashes of insight when she'd fallen into the hearts of those she loved best and realized God was helping her connect with people, even while she still had these strange powers. God wasn't waiting for an ideal Elsa who either didn't have powers, or had perfect control of her powers. He was loving and helping her right now, just as she was. She stopped trying to blink back the tears and just let them fall.

Olaf passed her a handkerchief and she took it, dabbing at her tears before she thought to wonder where Olaf had possibly gotten a handkerchief. She examined it. There was a "B" monogrammed in the corner.

~###~

Elsa walked out of the chapel thinking of God's love and acceptance, and wishing that Bishop Saholt had mentioned the fear of hurting people. That was the other reason she wasn't like the rest of the human race – she could hurt people even if she didn't intend to.

"Wasn't that an amazing sermon?" Anna asked as the five of them left the chapel together. "I sometimes drift off during sermons, but this one sounded like every word was alive."

"I suppose it's because we've been living it these past six months," said Elsa.

"It makes you think about what your deepest fears are, and wonder how they could ever be turned into trust," Bern said.

"That was strange he mentioned a fear of success. Who fears success?" Anna asked with a laugh.

Kristoff gave her a confused look and didn't say anything.

"I'm not afraid of anything!" Olaf boasted. "Love experts don't have to worry about fear."

Elsa smiled at him and thought that was true. Olaf had no fears and no worries. He was nothing but happiness and true love.

"Bern, are you going to be here all day?" Olaf asked him. "All the rest of the Councilors went home. Is the castle your home?"

Bern hesitated before answering. "I'm going to see my parents tomorrow. I'm selfish enough that I wanted to enjoy Christmas Day, so I stayed here. The castle is more my home than anywhere else."

Elsa looked at the pensiveness in his eyes and thought he wasn't really enjoying Christmas Day here either. There was more than one way she could hurt people. She'd never struck Bern with magical snow, but he was still hurting because she didn't love him back, and there wasn't anything she could do about that either. She could stop being icy and distant with him though. He was a friend, even if she couldn't allow him to be more than that. But before she could say anything to him, Kristoff jumped in.

"I'm glad you're here. There's only about ten of us guards here today, and it looks like we've got thousands of sacks of grain to load up. Want to come work?" Kristoff asked him.

"Sure!" Bern said, with the first real smile she'd seen from him that day.

"I'm so excited about that!" Anna said, bouncing like Olaf.

The grain they'd purchased from Lingarth had sailed into the harbor last week behind an icebreaker ship. An anonymous benefactor had supplied a substantial cash donation, and then they'd shipped back cut stone from the demolished north wing of the castle to help pay for it. The Castle Guards had spent the past week unloading the ship and getting the grain bagged for delivery. Everyone in Arendelle was getting a sack of grain for Christmas today. They already knew the grain was coming, but that only served to increase the excitement. Food was running low this year. Knowing she could help undo some of the damage she'd caused when she'd frozen their crops at her coronation gave Elsa real joy on this Christmas Day and she didn't have to force the smile she gave Bern and Kristoff.

"I'll make the announcement when the carts are loaded and ready to go," Elsa said. "I'm as excited as Anna. It will be so wonderful to be able to give everyone a Christmas gift!"

"You ladies are welcome to go to the village party without us. We'll be over as soon as we can," Kristoff promised.

Anna landed a kiss on his cheek and then caught Elsa by the arm. "Let's go! I'm dying to see Tyra again! There's going to be music, dancing, flowers, food and everything else. A Christmas party! A real, honest Christmas party for the first time in forever!"

They stopped at the castle's main doors for cloaks, hats and gloves. Elsa put on a cloak too. She wanted to look like everyone else today, and fit in. Over these past several months, she'd gotten comfortable with being queen and filling her official role. This party today was her chance to see if she could be an ordinary person too. She was even wearing boots instead of slippers, just like everyone else. She pulled on her gloves as Anna got her bonnet in place, then they headed out the door together, Olaf bouncing ahead of them in his hurry to get to the party.

In his sermon, Bishop Saholt quotes a few phrases from a lengthier series of scriptures, found in 1 John 4:7-21 (KJV).

This is 8 chapters long. The final chapter will post New Year's Day. Merry Christmas!