Friday, December 23, 2016

From Miracles to Blahs!



"But Mary treasured all these things pondering them in her heart.  The shepherds went back, glorifying and praising God for all that they had heard and seen, just as had been told them".  (Luke 2:19-20)  

Hey Gang:  When I was a little squeezer, the time from Thanksgiving to New Years was "out of sight".  It was a time for digging the platforms and Christmas trimmings out of the cubby hole on the third floor of our house, lugging them down two flights of stairs to the living room, and taking out each peace with loving care.  It was an exciting exercise! Each year, as I grew older, I was allowed to be more involved in the building of the little Villages and putting up the trains.   

We had a tradition that was handed down from my Dad's family: the tree did not go up until the little ones were tucked away in their beds on Christmas eve, awaiting the arrival of Saint Nick.  I was never quite sure how Dad trimmed the tree and set it in the middle of the platform without stepping on the houses, but he did. 

There were other wonderful things that happened in that time period.  It was the choosing of who would be in the Christmas Pageant at the church, and then rehearsals two and three times a week.  I have since come to the conclusion it was not the involvement in the play that made it so special, but the fellowship and fun, even though there were times when Mrs. Holiday got on our case because we were not as focused as she wanted.    

No doubt the script of our Christmas Pageant was based on the stories told in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke.  These accounts tell of the action surrounding the birth of Jesus Christ.  But the Gospel of John cuts through these descriptive accounts and simply tells the significance of what happened.  John's account provides no opportunity to fall into sentimentality or nostalgia about Christmas.  Neither does it lend itself well to pageants on Christmas Eve.

John minces no words. He jumps to the chase and tells us,  "The Word, who was God, was made flesh".  I sense he wanted to make it as clear as humanly possible that Jesus was really and truly a man who subjected himself to the miseries and calamities of the human nature.  God became flesh!  That is really the purpose for this season; Jesus left the Father to become like us.  Do you think He ever wondered if that was such a good idea?

The final days of preparation arrived and we did a walk though, They called it a ‘dress rehearsal’.  Not sure why because we were not dressed in what we would wear the nights of the performances.  Opening night was a very high point in my year.  Wow, was it neat to see the cars coming from all over the city to see the Nativity play.   Our sanctuary only seated 150 people but they could open the back doors and seat another 75.  Each night the church was packed.

 I never graduated beyond the shepherd level, which was just a very small step from being a sheep.  This role was given to all children who were too young to play the glamorous characters like Mary, Joseph, angels, and wise men.  There must have been at least a dozen of us traipsing and tripping down the aisle of the church each night.  I remember that my turban was an actual bath towel and my robe was the same bed sheet that had formerly transformed me into a ghost on Halloween.

On the final night they served a banquet, or I thought it was a  banquet.  Today, I am not sure wieners and hamburgers quality as feast--food .  And, at the end of the feast, we donned our coats and visited all the shut ins in our church and sang Christmas Carols and wished them a Merry Christmas. One year a local farmer provided a horse and wagon which was neat.

And then it was over for another year.  As I hung up my sheet, and put my staff in the corner for another year, I prayed that next year I would be elevated to one of the real key player positions, but tragedy struck our church that year.  The church board, after much prodding, decided the church really needed an organ to increase our level of songs and praise.  To make the long story very short - a war broke out between two factions in the church about who was going to play it.

 It would have been better if they would have called the Body together and torched the organ - You know what happens when power and pride get involved in God's work.  It not only split the church but also took the heart out of those who did not give a hoot who played the organ.  One might have gotten the idea there was some sort of plague in the church, for people were bailing out faster than if someone yelled "fire" .  The church died the day the truck pulled up and delivered the organ - from more than 200 regulars to 45.  

Soooo, I still have a sadness in my heart that I never had the opportunity to move up and be a king or a Magi, or even reach the pinnacle of the Church Nativity Program - to be Joseph the father of Messiah - wow, would that have been neat!  But the bottom line is – Jesus came and paid the debt for you and me. Praise You Lord for You came! God in Flesh!

Jesus left His place, to come to my place, to die in my place, to take me to His place.

Blessings, means that I pray God to impart his supernatural favor on those of you who read this blog. (Psalm 90:17

Gramps
Check tomorrow - Sat for our Christmas Card to you!

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