The Wonder of It All by Carol Harrison

 

Christmas and music go together in many special ways for me. Picking a favourite carol would be almost impossible but the music of Christmas evokes fond memories. I loved the Sunday school Christmas concerts of my childhood and waited in eager anticipation to say my lines or sing with my class. Watching the Nativity story unfold in music, words, and dramatization drew me like a magnet. As I grew up, I still enjoyed watching the younger children perform their parts but I also enjoyed the special music and choir cantatas during this season of wonder.

I watched my mother, a Sunday School teacher for two to four-year-old children, work with these little ones, year after year, to help them understand the story of Jesus coming as a baby and his birth announced by the shepherds. She worked for weeks so they could do something in the Christmas concerts and she chose two simple little songs.

My mother still taught nursery age Sunday school when my children were born and she taught each one of her grandchildren. Some people questioned her, wondering if these little ones could really understand the meaning of Christmas with baby Jesus and angels. Did they just look cute at the concerts, doing the actions to the songs? She always answered with an emphatic, “Yes.” They could understand to their limited knowledge.

When our youngest, with her health issues, learning disabilities, and lack of speech, joined Grandma’s class, I wondered if this might be the exception to my mother’s stance that little ones understood more than we give them credit for. I watched Amee’s eye light up when we practiced the songs or sang Jesus Loves Me.

I thought of these wonderful memories the other day as we set up our Christmas

decorations and listened to carols. I watched Amee set up the nativity set I bought when she was two-years-old. I can still picture her laying on her tummy in front of the Christmas tree and rearranging the figures of shepherds and kings, sheep and cows, and even a donkey and camel until they were crowded around baby Jesus. No matter who rearranged them on her, she always changed them back until all eyes focused on Jesus. Then I knew she understood the meaning of Christmas. The focus should always be on who Jesus is.

Can little ones understand the Christmas story? To their limited knowledge. But Jesus told us to come as little children, full of awe and wonder, with our limited knowledge. Matthew 18: 1-4 says, “At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” He called a little child and had him stand among them. And he said; “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom. And whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me.”

I still enjoy an old-fashioned Christmas concert where the children of all ages remind us, through music, drama, and words of the nativity story. The little ones are cute as they try their best or have frightened looks as they see the audience. I love the music of a Christmas Eve service ending with candlelight and the singing of Silent Night. But most of all the memories of how a two-year-old knew the focus of Christmas needed to be on Baby Jesus brings a wonder and delight at hearing the story once again through the Bible story and the carols of Christmas.

Joy to the world has one verse that say says, “And wonders of His love; and wonders of His love; and wonders, wonders of His love.” The wonders of God’s love – not just for the baby in the manger that we celebrate at Christmas but the wonder of the Christ on the cross taking our punishment and the wonder of the empty tomb. The wonder that God loved us so much that Jesus came to be our Saviour – Jew and Gentile, free and slave, rich and poor, educated and unschooled. The wonder of the gift God gave us in Jesus if we believe, accept and confess Him as Lord.

The wonder of a child at Christmas—the wonder I saw in Amee with the nativity and the simple songs my mother taught her two-year-old Sunday school class. The story, the music, the reality of who Jesus is needs to be the wonder that continues with us and allows us to sing Joy to the world the Lord is Come. Let men their songs employ.

The world around might be unrecognizable this year but the truth remains unchanged. Let the wonder of God’s amazing gift wrap us in awe each time we sing about angels announcing, shepherd watching, and wise men seeking this new-born King.

 

 

 

Carol Harrison, B.Ed. is a published author, inspirational speaker, and storyteller from Saskatoon. She loves Christmas, music, stories, and hanging out with family and friends.