Thank You ! THANK YOU !!

Well, it’s over. Pre-Christmas weekend 2011 has passed. This is the weekend which, year after year, is especially earmarked to be the high-water mark of holiday events. With all the complex planning which goes into the various programs, it is not unusual to hear someone say that they are “finally” able to focus on Christmas once they end. Nevertheless, there is still something about the activities which may make the memory that we carry with us through the remaining days until Christmas more enriching.

Take this weekend for example. Wow!

First there was the Living Nativity on Friday and Saturday. This is the third year folks in our church family have organized and provided a site for this ministry. We do not do cantatas at Christmastime. We do not do a major Christmas play. Instead, we join forces with several other evangelical churches and individual volunteers to offer the chance for a passerby to jog his holiday thinking. Our parking lot is especially useful in that it is along a stretch of highway on the northwest corner of the city which sees thousands of cars pass by in the course of a day. Since we occupy the full end of the block along that road we are able to create a drive-through opportunity.

For months, time, energy and thought are invested in creative and strategic thinking. Volunteers are sought, resources are gathered, sign-up sheets abound. By the time the first car drives through, costumes have been made (no bathrobes allowed), cookies have been baked, chili has been prepared, lights have been gathered, electric cords have been laid, scenes have been painted and hung, a manger has been built, camels have been built, real sheep have been brought in, fires have been started to warm the hands of the participants, and a line-up of “cast” members stand ready to take their turn in the cold to represent the various characters of the story.

Passersby may do just that – pass by. Some sound their horn in appreciation (and, in the case of truckers, to respond to angels and shepherds inviting them to give a toot). Others pause and then turn off the main road to drive slowly through the parking lot for a closer look and a snatch of song from the carolers who greet them. It is then the motorist receives the invitation to come inside for coffee, hot chocolate, chili (with a contest to see which is best), and cookies. Once inside there is the opportunity to watch an artist sketch, listen to a long line-up of talented and budding musicians take their turn at some familiar carols, walk down an avenue of decorated trees (I think the Charlie Brown Christmas tree should receive an award), look at a collection of gingerbread creations by the Cortland Christian Academy’s Junior/Senior class (I could not believe they used chocolate chips like that!), let their children play in a corner for tots, and simply enjoy good conversation.

What an event that was. Hundreds of people actually stopped in. Who knows how many passed by and thought about what they had seen? As I watched the children, I wondered to myself what memories would linger over the years and how might God’s Spirit use those memories. 

Speaking of youngsters, the second highlight of this past weekend was the Children’s Program on Sunday morning. I have NEVER seen non-professional children so well prepared and energetic and enthusiastic and engaged in lines and songs for a Christmas presentation. During the same weeks when preparations for the Living Nativity were in full swing, many of the same people from our church family were busy preparing scenes and costumes (the sheep were adorable). At the same time others labored through rehearsals and logistics; and many a parent patiently brought their child to rehearsal after rehearsal. The result was an encouraging send-off into the last days before the “big day.”

Over and over in various settings we were reminded that there was a time in space-time history when God became one of us in order that to provide full pardon and a new life to us who had taken his original creation and tried to create our own, personal, counterfeit kingdom.

Thank you to any and all who stayed with the stuff and allowed God to use you to make the events of this weekend happen.