It is a little surreal to sit in the Education Building and count angel wings. Going through the stack (yes, we have a stack of angel wings!), we were testing to see if they’re still in good repair, checking to see if we need to make a few more, and generally fluffing the feathers. Sitting in a box, they look a little silly, but in just a few weeks’ time, they will be transformed. As a pastor who has the privilege of working with children, my December is filled with the Christmas story. Every Sunday and most weekdays, the story is rehashed in incredible detail: Magi gifts are dusted off, Advent candles are lit, nativities of every size and shape are taken apart and put back together, and the stack of Christmas storybooks just seems to grow! A friend asked me if it ever gets boring, if the story ever grows old.
I had to think for a moment about the question. Does it get boring? Is the story growing stale? It didn’t take me long to answer. The story can’t grow old, because each year I have the privilege of seeing it through new eyes and hearing it told in new voices. Practicing in the Sanctuary with our scripture readers, I hear a new cadence or a new emphasis on words that I have memorized, and the scripture is alive again. Sitting with students, new questions are posed, and I have to look at the story in a new way. Watching our angels as they turn and shake their wings, I see the heavenly host descending again, bringing good news to all people.
I hope each of you finds opportunities to see, hear, and experience the story of God’s love poured out in Jesus Christ. It might be at the Live Nativity this Sunday as Mary and Joseph maneuver through the sheep and goats. It might be in the fellowship of singing together at Carols and Cocoa, it could be in the gift of joy at the Youth Reindeer Games, in the beauty of the choir singing at the Christmas Concert, or in the quiet of the Longest Night Service. It may also be found in a simple prayer, the lights shining through the night, or returning to that old story again and listening for God’s new word today.