Hey, Unto You a Child is Born!

I took my tree down to the shore.

The garland and the silver star.

To find my peace and grieve no more

To heal this place inside my heart

On every branch I laid some bread

And hungry birds filled up the sky

The ran thy bells around my head

They sang my spirit back to life.

One tiny child can change the world

One shining light can show the way

For all my tears, for what I’ve lost

There is still my joy

There is still my joy for Christmas day.

The snow comes down on empty sand

There’s tinsel moonlight on the waves

My soul was lost, but here I am

So this must be amazing grace.

Melissa Manchester

Hey! Unto you a child is born!   Good morning readers, it has been a while. Far too long in fact. I’ve missed you and I apologize. It’s not that I’ve ignored you or that there is nothing to say, my excuse is simply life has gotten in the way. Like so many of us the everyday duties and responsibilities of everyday life often and in recent days, most frequently call to us louder than any other voice. For the last two years I have been working on my Master’s certificate, was back on the road singing and traveling most weekends, sold another home, moved to a new city, began a new job and have remarried. Life has been a little busy. Yet somehow, among all of this, I feel guilty for not having required myself to put pen to paper.

So, here I sit today, not unlike most days I’ve spent, awaiting the hustle and bustle of the Christmas season. I am awake in the quiet morning hours long before my family stirs and the words begin to call to me in an old familiar voice, “come, let us sit a while”.   Today the song that stirs within my soul “come and see what God has done”.  Indulge me if you will, this may seem like rambling at moments, but I promise it will all make sense eventually.

The tree is trimmed in the corner of my new living room, presents spilling out from underneath its branches in a river of paper and bows for my children and the two that I gained in marriage. There may even be a few for my husband underneath there. My oldest now lives in Tampa instead of Nashville and he and his beautiful wife have given me a perfect ginger haired grandson and next week he will be here to unwrap the goodies from Nana and Papa with little hands that have captured my heart.

  I find myself once again in the land of the unfamiliar. There are days when it all seems surreal to a point and in this constantly changing world which I once embraced, in these hours I long for something familiar to cling to. As of late it seems to me that I have been walking through may days in a self -propelled haze, trying my best to adjust to my new routine. My children are growing up and away as every mother knows they do. With this beautiful new family, there has been a year of adjustment and purposeful  planning to incorporate old traditions from both sides and to create our own in this new season.  So, it seems the Holy Spirit has wooed me this morning to bring you along on this journey as He reminds me to come and see what God has done.

“For the Lord, your God has blessed you in all that you have done, He has known your wanderings through the great wilderness. These years the Lord your God has been with you; you have lacked nothing.” Deuteronomy 2:7

After 5 years I am back in the classroom full time again. 10 little souls from varied backgrounds are entrusted to me each day to fashion them into productive little citizens. Their IQs range from 45-70 and their life experiences are incredibly limited by the circumstances into which each was born. To say that there are gaps to fill in for them would be a gross understatement and would not begin to adequately assess the situation. Each of my students is working on a functional curriculum which does allow me much freedom in the materials and methods I incorporate into our daily routines. In developing a Christmas unit this year, I debated on which story to use. In the past, I have rotated each year between the Little House Christmas story, the Polar Express and several others as well. My decision was made for me when around Thanksgiving, my children all disclosed to me that none had ever heard the Christmas story. You know, the birth of Christ. Not one. Only one child of my 10 admitted to even attending church on an infrequent basis. Well, then what else was I to do…this year’s Christmas unit would be The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson.

If you are not familiar with this little novella, it is the story of the worst kids in the world, the Herdmans who have stumbled into our narrator’s church, lured in by false pretenses. As the story unfolds the children have turned the church on its head and God reveals His glory in unfamiliar and unexpected ways. We, the reader, are reminded that our familiar, ornate, and traditional thoughts of Christmas may be less than accurate and that even in the midst of what seems like chaos, God often provides in unanticipated ways.

I would love to tell you that this little story had a significant and life changing impact on my little flock and that each one was immediately transformed from this experience, but I would be lying through my teeth!  Mostly, my students complained that there were too many vocabulary words, or that the words were too hard. A few readily embraced the story and asked questions. Most muddled through what was considered to be just another story, but what they do not know is that penned within the funny little scenes and the entertaining prose was the story of redemption for all man. While the true meaning of Christmas may not have leaped from the pages into actualization for my little charges, a tiny seed was planted in each of their hearts and minds that I pray will grow and flourish as well as the pussy willow seed in Leroy Herdman’s ear.

However, I think as in true Holy Spirit fashion, this unit was more for me than for my students. Some of you know what I’m speaking of. Finding God in unexpected and unfamiliar places. There are many of you that like myself, have been in a season and even seasons of constant change and unfamiliarity, some of our own choosing and some not. Some seasons of grief, some seasons of joy, for some a bittersweet mixture of both. Mayhem and chaos, confusion and fear all sent by an enemy to distract us from the voice of the Father saying “I’m here, child. I’ve never left your side.”  And yet on this side, the Holy Spirit reveals to us the unexpected provisions of our Heavenly Father.

I imagine this was the case over two thousand years ago in the bustling town of Bethelehem . Packed with strangers in the land of their forefathers, yet unfamiliar to so many, chaos would have been the order of the day as the mother of Jesus and her husband scurried to find shelter on the Holiest of nights. No special treatment, no reservations, not even a small corner of a room is offered to the young journey weary couple. In the pageant in the story, this is where Imogene Herdman asked “didn’t they know he was Jesus?”  The truth is that no, they did not. The people of the town were doing what we all do…going about their business in the middle of what seemed to be a chaotic time for all. The truth is that outside of this earthly couple entrusted to God incarnate, no one really cared. One young couple here for the census among all the thousands of young couples in the city were of no consequence to anyone else.

As we fill our pews during the Christmas season, we “ponder” the sanitized version of the Christmas Story. Like the character Alice Wendlekin, we take great offense to anything that makes the experience appear anything less than Holy. When in actuality there was no silent night, there was no peace on Earth, there was a make shift bed of straw, in a dark, damp, smelly cave used as a stable. There was fear and pain as a young mother brought her child into a world that was not ready to accept him for who he was. There was uncertainty and unfamiliarity as a young man steps into a role that must have felt to him like the weight of the world had been placed upon his shoulders. There laid in a manger among the filth of animals lay the hope of all mankind born in the lowliest of circumstances. The anticipated amid the unexpected. Though not in what would seem to be the most appropriate of circumstances, God provided.  

“Hey! Unto You a child is born!” screams the youngest of the wild Herdman children, Gladys. The meanest of them all. And so it is, that as our story comes to a close, the Holy Spirit has allowed me to walk away with a greater understanding as well. My students were entertained by the shenanigans of Imogene, Ollie, Leroy, Ralph, Claude and Gladys Herdman and each heard the story of Christ’s birth but I may have been the most affected by the reading of this children’s book.  As is true Holy Spirit fashion, within my soul a stirring to remember that despite the chaos which surrounds each of us, despite the turmoil, the financial difficulties, the medical diagnosis, the grief and the uncertain, God has provided. Though the details may not be what we ourselves had envisioned or planned, in His wisdom and goodness,  the Holy Father provides. Unto us a child is born, unto us a Savior is given which is Christ the Lord! I invite you, just as I have been reminded this Christmas season, come and see what God has done. Amidst the baking and cooking, the wrapping and the carnage after the gifts are opened, the hustle and bustle of the business of the season, in the middle of your Bethelhem ask the Father to reveal his provisions. Hey, unto you a child is born, maybe this is amazing grace.

But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. ¹¹ Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. Luke 2:11

He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Roman 8:32

 *I do not own the rights to the video or music incorporated in the blog

Merry Christmas,

Shannon