According to Your Word

My #1 favorite, most satisfying thing to do at Christmastime is to sing in our church’s Christmas musical (cantata for you traditionalists). The songs help me realize again the real meaning of Christmas – that Jesus, God in human form, came, out of his great love, to save us. I leave the performance feeling centered, revitalized, content. It is a fitting culmination to frenzied weeks of preparation.

Beginning in September when relaxing vacations are only vague memories and hectic school schedules loom ahead, the choir begins behind-the-scene preparations for its largest presentation of the year. Singers pore over new music, audition and rehearse; technicians tune instruments, arrange lighting and sound elements; actors and directors work out dramatic interludes; seamstresses repair robes and costumes; carpenters design and construct sets.

 By mid-November, amid technical glitches and musical challenges, we question our ability to bring the program to life. Is a performance really worth this effort? Can we do justice to the writers’ words and the composers’ music score? Inevitably, in December, the miracle occurs, the tedium decreases and the message comes to life.  

This evening our choir presented the third of three performances. One particular song pierced my heart more deeply than the others. It is Mary’s song, the words of a young, pregnant, unmarried girl who learns she is carrying the longed-for Messiah. Even in the midst of her fear, she presents her whole self to her Lord, content in the knowledge that His Will is sovereign and that she is His vessel to be used as he desires. The song, Be it Unto me according to your word speaks of her simple faith, her childlike trust and her wholehearted commitment to whatever God places in her path.

Even now the words resonate within me. It has become my prayer. I pray it will be yours throughout this special season and always.