It has been a long, frustrating 18 months. One of the things I have missed the most is singing with my people. As we headed in to Christmas Eve this year I was trying to figure out how to do lessons & carols without the carols. I couldn’t imagine closing our worship in celebration of Christ’s birth with no candles and without singing Silent Night.
I came up with a wild idea, we could put up a water proof sun shade in the courtyard and sing under that. So I found one on Amazon and a couple of the trustees said they would put it up. We talked about where it would go. When I turned up to work a few days before Christmas Eve the shade was up, but hung flat, so the heavy rains were already causing it to sag and the poles to bend. My office angel Bill & I made some adjustments using random poles and bits of wood from around the church.
On Christmas Eve I was so excited about singing Silent Night. The evening start poorly however, as I pulled in to the parking lot I spotted a huge pipe, resting on the ledge at the bottom of the lot. People leave their yard waste, park their broken cars, and dump random things from time to time. I was so mad that someone basically just rolled this pipe down our sloped lot to rest right by the door. As I got out of my car and headed in to the church I was grumpy, and then I saw at that the tarp was nearly touching the ground. So much for my visions of singing in the light! I was super frustrated and angry. The wooden poles were shattered, the tarp was full of water and I started to cry hot, angry tears. Then I took a breath and a thought entered my head, “Use the pipe.”
I went over to the lot and discovered that it was in fact a huge cardboard tube, maybe from a carpet roll. It was a bit wet, but super sturdy. I carted it into the courtyard and pushed it up into the tarp, like the center pole of a circus tent. Water cascaded off. The broken poles flapped in the wind. I ran inside and got some twine to tie them to the rope holding the tarp to the trees, so no one would be injured.
Later that evening we sang our song of Hope and Light together and again I cried. This time in joy as I encountered the holy in song and community, with light in the darkness. This Christmas my miracle came in the form of cardboard. I am forever grateful for the creative and unexpected ways that God shows up in our lives.
-Eilidh
Recent Comments