‘To prepare our hearts for Christmas we must cultivate the spirit of expectancy’ – Handel H Brown – pastor and author, Florida USA.
I was standing by my mother in a school hall recently, singing some well-loved carols. They are by now, so familiar to me that the words are embedded in my memory banks, so my mind wandered a bit. The hall was, in fact, in my old primary school where her church happens to meet. I wondered how many carols I had sung there over the course of my junior years. Thanks to excellent music teachers, we had a reasonably good school choir and learned a variety of ancient and modern carols which we belted out with gusto at the more-or-less appropriate times.
I have stood on platforms in that hall and not only sung, but read in assemblies, acted in plays, swung (not very elegantly) from the wall bars, and eaten seventeen terms worth of school dinners (not all at once). I received my dose of childhood diphtheria medicine there, encountered the nit nurse alongside my classmates, and enjoyed the treat of having our formidable but twinkly-eyed headmaster read a story to us. I’ve sat cross-legged on the floor and listened to a poem I had written being broadcast on a schools’ radio programme, after it won a national competition in 1976.
But, the memory that surged back most strongly was the one in which I was given the part of Gabriel as part of a Christmas concert. Whichever member of staff was directing that year may have been rather ambitious in their vision for the piece. In an attempt to emulate a famous painting, whose name I never mastered even then, I stood on a raised dais flanked by my fellow dressing-gown corded angels, with a dusky pink wrap of fabric slung across my torso, while they held gold sprayed leaves aloft in a tableau which was marred only when any of us had an infectious attack of the giggles.
I had been Gabriel once before in my infant school, where my friends were suitably impressed by my ability to earn my one line of approximately eight words in record time. More importantly for me, it meant that I finally got to wear the coveted golden wings over my bed sheet costume. These revered items spent most of their dusty life stored in the school attic. I don’t know how old they were by the time I got to pull them on in the late 60s, but they must have been a labour of love from some creative adult. Layers of gold lozenge shapes had been methodically glued onto sturdy cardboard in overlapping rows to create layers (rather like roof tiles). The final creation was dazzling for a five or six year-old. Even though I had been draped in the familiar blue of Mary the previous year which, apparently, is considered the pinnacle of all nativity castings, it was being Gabriel in my final play before heading to Junior School which filled me with unadulterated pleasure.
‘The spirit of expectancy’ of which the old American pastor spoke was present in bucket loads throughout my childhood, so that even sitting on the darkened stairs at home watching the fairy lights gave me thrilling flutters in my tummy.
It’s easy to discard the magical feelings of yesteryear when December rolls around for us as adults.
I found myself returning to the entrancing fancies of the past at an immersive theatrical experience last week: A Christmas Carol, brought to life by a single performer, accompanied by three professional musicians and interspersed with an incredible three course meal served between the ‘stanzas’ of the book/play. It was like stepping back into childhood; a Yuletide fantasy full of evocative bells, lamps, carols, smells and tastes. I was captivated by it all, and emerged into the London gloom invigorated and overwhelmed by expectancy for the spirit of Christmas to dance through these final Advent days.
Fortunately, Christmas is so much more than a feeling. Wouldn’t it be great if celebrating the arrival of a Saviour for humanity was not only remembered and honoured, but enthusiastically embraced with deep reverence, gratitude and relief in these increasingly dark days.
‘God bless us, everyone!’
Wishing you a very merry, peace and hope-filled Christmas, and a happy new year!
Images: thanks to Pixabay & MKJ
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