Friday, December 23,
2016
"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 -Do 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 these blogs.
(Psalm 90:17
Gramps
PS This one brought tears as I read it
again. John 1 has been special to me this fall. I Can picture the family carrying things down 2
flights of Very Steep stairs they- (they lived in the mountains) and setting it up.
Now you know why the mega Christmas platforms at our house - over 5000
pieces which we made over the years. It is going to be boxed up after the Holidays. I had forgotten why, until our Kids were
teens, that we didn’t have a tree until the day before Christmas. We, too, had special
programs at church - but no organ!! Many special memories of 63 Christmases
together!! Our family shared many with Seniors and youth.
Sooo, no
blahs!!! Fill your life - year around - With the love of Jesus!
Gma J
No comments:
Post a Comment