Christmas Love

I attended a “fair” over at the Brewster “Dog Park” last week.   Wandering by the booths, I came across one set up by Shirley Pieters Vogel.  An inspirational speaker and author of the book wHispers, she took the time to explain who she was and her latest project – the book “Faith, Favorites, Fun, and Fotos of Cape Cod."  

I opened her book and flipped through the pages to come across the following story about Christmas.   I know we have a few months to go, but I cannot wait, so I share one of her “author unknown” selections.

“There’s a wonderful story about a mother who went to her kindergarten son’s ‘Winter Pageant.’  Because the public school system had stopped referring to the holiday as Christmas, she didn’t expect anything other than fun entertainment about reindeer, Santa Claus, snowflakes, and good cheer.  When her little boy’s class rose to sing ‘Christmas Love,’ she was surprised by its bold title.

The children all wore fuzzy mittens, red sweaters, and bright hats.  Those in the front row – center stage – held up  large letters, one by one, to spell out the title of the song.  As the class would sing, ‘C is for Christmas,’ a child would hold up the letter C, and so on until they had completed the message, ‘Christmas Love.’

All was going smoothly until we noticed, a quiet girl in the front row holding the letter M upside down.  The audience of first through sixth graders snickered at her mistake, but she had no idea they were laughing at her.  So, she stood tall, proudly holding her W.

Although many teachers tried to quiet the children, the laughter continued until the last letter was raised.  Then we all saw it together.  A hush came over the audience, and eyes began to widen.  In that instant we understood the reason we were there; why we celebrated the holiday in the first place; why, even in the chaos, there was purpose for our festivities.  For when the last letter was held up

high, the message read loud and clear: ‘CHRISTWASLOVE.’  And as we believe, Jesus is love.”

I provide this story because when riding in my car today, I heard the “Power of Love” by Celine Dion, and I was reminded of my stop at the booth.   Yes, the power of love is the power provided by Jesus when we act out of love.  Shirley Pieters Vogel reinforced this understanding.

Deacon David Pierce