At this time of year when many are decorating and gifting I turn to a memory from my youth in Norwich Connecticut. It was in the early Fifties and the world I knew was prospering and mostly at peace. We could go to the local A&P and get a large paper sack of groceries for less than $5. We were members of the United Congregational Church that met in a historic building in downtown Norwich. I was approaching my teens and developing my impressions about important things of life. I attended Sunday school and learned the Old Testament stories of Joseph of the multicolored coat, Moses and the Ten Commandments, Solomon the wise king and the other inspiring stories. I also learned the story of the birth of Jesus Christ.
In our congregation we usually celebrated this season with an annual Christmas Pageant and this year I was participating as a shepherd. I was costumed in a bathrobe; a towel draped over my head tied with a piece of rope and carried a crooked stick. I remember kids playing angels dressed with a sheet draped around them; a tinsel halo over their head and cardboard wings attached to their backs. The three wise men wore fake beards and pieces of cloth wrapped like a turban around their heads carrying decorated boxes representing their gifts to the Lord.
I mostly remember a peaceful reverent spirit in the sanctuary created by the singing of carols about the Christ child’s birth.
Everything was focused on the small family situated at the center of the tableau, a boy dressed in a bathrobe like I wore, standing by a pretty girl clad in a robe. They were gazing into a wooden cradle where a doll represented the most wonderful gift that Heavenly Father could ever give us, the Savoir of the world even Jesus Christ.
The strongest part of this memory is of the Spirit that filled me testifying of the divinity of that little boy who would live a life with out sin. Who, over his thirty years, communed with Angels and other messengers from his Father preparing for his ministry. Who then established His Church upon the Earth and then finished his earthly mission by giving his life as penance for our sins.
In this time of commercialism and pile building around a decorated tree that memory lives on in me as my first testimony of the humble birth and divinity of Jesus Christ. It reminds me that the true meaning of this season is to remember His birth and mission.
We have received many blessings this year including a trip to Florida in April to baptize Michael; two new sons-in-law, James Steed to Melissa in July; and Wayne Finlinson to Kristen in September who is blessed with their first child due in early July; during the time of Kristen’s wedding I also was privileged to ordain Michael an Elder. In November we connected with a granddaughter Ali (Alexandra) Townsend whom we thought was lost to us. We welcome them into our family.
We love and appreciate our family and friends. May you too remember the original purpose of this time and season.
Allan & Marilyn Hale
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