Advent: Favorite Tradition

by | Dec 13, 2018 | Holidays

Advent: Favorite Tradition | While my real favorite tradition is stockings, a Christmas musical is what puts me in the Christmas mood. Growing up we did a pageant at my church telling the story of Jesus. It transformed the way I look at scripture. #bigpittstopADVENT #christmas #favoritetradition

I think my favorite tradition of the Christmas season is stockings and I wrote a lot about that already earlier this week. So, I thought I’d share about my favorite tradition growing up. 

Advent: Favorite Tradition | While my real favorite tradition is stockings, a Christmas musical is what puts me in the Christmas mood. Growing up we did a pageant at my church telling the story of Jesus. It transformed the way I look at scripture. #bigpittstopADVENT #christmas #favoritetradition

I grew up in a pretty big church in the DFW metroplex and each year we did a Christmas pageant. My dad sang in the choir and my mom was always one of the side stage managers. Through the years my sister and I were in many different kid roles. It seemed that there was a hierarchy of roles as you went through the years. We had lots of “pageant moms” and they would let us tag along as kids in the village and had snacks in their market baskets for us. Whether they were showing fabric or fruits, we always stayed close and walked, and sang, along with them. 

We knew all the music. My dad would listen to it on the cassette player in our car and we would hear it all fall, so we knew it all. 

As we got older, we got to be part of the procession with the three wisemen’s entourage. Later I remember I even got to be a “fan girl” in Pilate’s court. That was the ultimate “older teenager” role. 

Advent: Favorite Tradition | While my real favorite tradition is stockings, a Christmas musical is what puts me in the Christmas mood. Growing up we did a pageant at my church telling the story of Jesus. It transformed the way I look at scripture. #bigpittstopADVENT #christmas #favoritetradition

The pageant was so fun. Our church did a great job as they acted out and told the story of the birth, death, and resurrection of Christ. I think it’s one of the reasons I look at the words of scripture the way I do. I try to think about what it was like when the words were written. Who the characters are in each story. What baggage they bring, and life experiences. I like to think about what it would be like to step into their town at that time. 

For the story of the “manger,” it was a people waiting in great anticipation, yet negligent of the miracle happening in their own backyard. A people who had not seen or heard from God for 400 years, yet He was not silent. He was still working. And, a people too busy with the requirements of the law to notice when GRACE moved into their neighborhood. 

We give them a hard time. “Oh shame” to the people of Jesus’ time. They had no idea the gift they were given. They had no idea how great it must have been to hear His words live in the amphitheater or on a boat or in a garden. Yet, we have those same words and we are not always moved by them either. “Oh shame” on the people for not making room for Jesus. Guess what, that was the plan. A quiet and scared teenager had traveled on the rickety back of a donkey all day, escorted by her soon to be husband who was protecting their reputation. They weren’t looking for an audience or an entourage, they were looking for a humble place to follow in the next step of obedience as they had each day for the last nine months. Dare I even say the last 14+ years of their life. After all, they had been doing something right to “find God’s favor.”

Those experiences of the pageant are many of the “movie scenes” that play in my head when I read the words of the Bible. I’m that kind of learner. I need to enter the story, meet the people, look around at their circumstances and imagine the scene. 

Advent: Favorite Tradition | While my real favorite tradition is stockings, a Christmas musical is what puts me in the Christmas mood. Growing up we did a pageant at my church telling the story of Jesus. It transformed the way I look at scripture. #bigpittstopADVENT #christmas #favoritetradition
This Christmas I attended the Christmas musical at my husband’s home church and got to meet Larnelle Harris. My dad and I sang several of his songs when I was growing up. He still has those amazing pipes and this really helped me get in the Christmas mood!

It was a really powerful and special time in my life. While they don’t do that anymore and we don’t live close I still need a little church musical experience to set me in the Christmas mood. Whether it’s Festival of Christmas at Ouachita, the Gift of Christmas at Prestonwood or a local church musical it is just always the thing that really puts me in the Christmas mood. Heck sometimes a kids show even does the trick. My senses (LINK) need to see and hear at the same time for it to click. 

Advent: Favorite Tradition | While my real favorite tradition is stockings, a Christmas musical is what puts me in the Christmas mood. Growing up we did a pageant at my church telling the story of Jesus. It transformed the way I look at scripture. #bigpittstopADVENT #christmas #favoritetradition

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