Monday, December 13, 2010

A Weekend of Firsts and Confirmations; Glory of Christmas and Family

I have been home a week and it has been amazing. I have kept busy with Lylas and lunches, cleaning and decorating, missing my mom and dad, and reconnecting with the family I left behind for 184 days.
My husband told me he changed while we are apart and hoped I saw it when I returned; it has been hard to miss. He goes to a Men’s Only small group, is part of the Building Ministry of our church, attends a Couples’ small group with me every other Friday, and has worked extremely hard alongside others of the stage crew for the 19th running of the Glory of Christmas production at a church we call home in Northrdige Church.
Having moved to Plymouth just three months before heading to California for the next six months, did not leave much time to interact with Robbe’s (my husband) family. We have been married just over a year and they didn’t attend the wedding. Not that they weren’t invited but they chose not to come…having been to four others before ours. Yes; my husband has four ex-wives and his family had attended and befriended them all. I guess it was only fair that at some point, they had to say “We’re done.” I took it personally for a while even though I tried to tell myself that it wasn’t about me…but didn’t believe it. I tried to put myself in their shoes but couldn’t. What must it be like to pray for peace and happiness for their son and brother only to have it fail after three, five, ten, or eleven years respectively? To them, I was just the next wife in a line of many. I wanted them to see me as Jesus did; transformed and forgiven of my past… just as Robbe was transformed and forgiven of his. I wanted them to see me not as the next wife, but the last wife; the one that Jesus handpicked for Robbe to live the life we were both meant to live.
I am thrilled that before I went to California, we were able to invite them to our church for the Easter program….that not surprisingly but very appropriately was “The Prodigal Son.” It was amazing to share and I truly believe was the beginning of the familial relationship I hoped for with his family. We even went to dinner afterwards where we were joined by his sister’s daughters, husbands and grandson. I got to sit next to Robbe’s mom during the show as well as dinner and it was effortless to chat with her and feel a welcoming I longed for.
It was great to share the invitation to our church again this past weekend for another Christ centered holiday; the Glory of Christmas. With Robbe being on the Building Ministry team as well as the stage crew for the performances, it has been difficult to keep him quiet and not tell us what to expect. But for that… I am grateful.
As the clock counted down to the beginning of the show and Robbe sat beside me, seeing the show from this side of the stage for the first time, I was excited to be a part of what I knew would be life changing for so many that filled our sanctuary; including those that call Northridge Church our home.
The program began with a choir and traditional Christmas Carols, a scene with a snow globe and soldier, a visit from Santa Claus, and the turning point to the program when a little girl sang “Happy Birthday Jesus” and presented a gift to a baby in a manger at the front of the stage. Act One ended with a rendition of “Little Drummer Boy” that would look out of place anywhere other than Northridge Church as it was done completely without music and only sounds beat boxed behind two singers and a choir that accompanied them; a video screen of a desert and ‘little drummer boy’ playing throughout. I looked beside me to my in-laws to gauge their reactions and they were as entranced as I was as I breathed a sigh of relief.
At the intermission, we talked about my experience as a Lotion Lady and my mother in law even joked about wanting to get to the Ladies Room to experience it for herself. She went but wasn’t able to get in on the lotion action because there was a line to receive it. I thought it was a nice gesture and was thankful to have something to chat about while letting her know a bit about me and my relationship with Jesus. I would love to include her and my sister in law in a bible study through our church one day or invite them to a Women’s event but I am happy to share in these holidays with them until I get the nerve to step out of my comfort zone a little bit more. They have been receptive to my ministry and love the bible covers I have made for them and I look forward to getting to know them better.
Act two began as the curtain came up; the theme music from Law and Order being played by the orchestra. The stage was set up as a courtroom; a local attorney trying to get his name on the map by suing the City to remove a nativity scene from a local park. The title of this year’s production was “Night at the Nativity.” It is a take on the movie “Night at the Museum” where Ben Stiller plays a new night security guard and all of the exhibits come to life causing mayhem that he needs to account for and no one believes. The entire show was based on David, the attorney, visiting the nativity scene in question and experiencing the true meaning of its purpose; even his co-counsel telling him that he likes seeing the nativity scene because it reminds him of the true meaning of Christmas and takes him back to reliving the whole story of the birth of Jesus.
Our story was more than characters coming to life and did not stop with Jesus in a manger. In fact…our pastor was there to remind us that Christmas starts at the manger but it surely doesn’t end there. The whole reason that Christ was born that day in Bethlehem was to die on a cross for our sins; being the ultimate proof that God loved us by sending his only son to rescue us from ourselves, our sin, and our failure….that now, does not have to be final.
The First Noel was belted out by an unassuming woman to the left of the stage as the angels came to life and swayed from the rafters of our sanctuary, danced on the stage, and sang from the nativity turned night sky filled with stars and angels to welcome him. The stage was filled with shepherds and peasants walking the aisles to the stage as someone plainly and simply sang Silent Night; candles in their hands matching those held by the choir also wearing unassuming costumes to keep the focus from them and onto what was happening on the stage.
But the highlight of the show for me is what came next. This is only my second Christmas as a Christian so I don’t have many Christmas Concerts to compare it to but I cannot imagine anything better than the performance of “Healing is in Your Hands”. An angel was telling our attorney friend David that the manger was just the beginning. It was the beginning of a life of a human that accomplished what no other man has ever done; who grew up to do amazing things. For just as long as it took to sing the song, the audience was walked through the miracles performed by Jesus; from helping a woman to see, a man to walk, bringing a daughter back to life. I cried as I stared and completely forgot where I was; feeling like the stories of the bible were truly coming to life on a stage before me, shared with my family. I literally sat on the edge of my seat trying to get closer, afraid to miss a thing.
Another compelling scene to follow was of Christ on a cross; bloody and beaten but barely visible…showing only as the lights of the sanctuary flickered with sounds of thunder and flashes of lightning, emulating the earthquake and eclipse when Jesus took his final breaths; David on his knees as the choir sang “Forgiveness” behind him.
The stage curtain closes and our Senior Pastor makes his way to center stage. He tells of his story being similar to David’s; a skeptic of sorts, thinking that Christianity was some kind of angle growing up. It was only when he came across people that were truly transformed and giving Jesus all of the credit that he began to think a transformed life could be possible for himself as well. I cried….being one of the transformed that wants to show others what Jesus has done for me. I looked around the room that now held 3,000 of my closest friends and hoped that others would answer the call to have their own relationship with Jesus. Our pastor told us that we have all sinned and fall short but failure is never final and it is by His grace we are saved. He mentioned Ephesians which immediately piqued my interest since it was written by Paul to all followers of Jesus but originally written to the church of Ephesus. “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast.” Ephesians 2:8-9
Tears again came to my eyes as I wondered and prayed with our pastor as he asked those in the audience to begin their own relationship with Jesus. Could I possibly be one of the transformed people that helped others make that decision? When I was in California, there were 15 women that made that decision. I do not know where they are in their walk now but I pray for them often. I know that it is impossible to show all that Jesus has done for me without sharing the bad that I was brought from. Did Jesus put me there for a
…time such as this?

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