Have you ever thought about how it would have been to be present at one of Jesus miracles, say the feeding of the five-thousand? We read about the miracles and often don't stop to think about how it might have felt. I imagine that often the crowd didn't even see all of what Jesus was doing because it happened so fast.
Think about it just now. You are in a remote place with your wife and three kids and the time has ticked by as you listened to the Master Teacher. All of a sudden you realize that it is late and a long way to the nearest Kroger Store. You are running the options by your wife when all of a sudden one of Jesus' disciples comes by and tells you to go and join that group of forty-five people over there.
Scratching your head you comply. About a half an hour later you notice that Jesus' is praying and blessing the food. You can barely make out the source but it looks like a small basket. There's a lad holding it up to Jesus. Another ten minutes pass and the same disciple returns with his cloak full of bread and offering it to you and your family.
What has just happened? Where did this food come from? You soon find out as the word spreads like wildfire through the huge crowd. The tingle stings your nervous system from your crown to the tip of your sandals.
Did it feel like that? I don't know. But today at Bible club I felt a similar tingle and it brought tears to my eyes. We had a good group of kids today. There were thirty-two juniors. Dawn had four little ones and we had a great group of fifteen teens. But it was what happened AFTER club that sent the miracle tingle through my body.
I need to stop here and give a little background to this story. It was just over a year ago that Dawn and I became a part of the Bible club and Faith Baptist Church. We joined the team in early September just before preparations for the coming kid's Christmas cantata. Alexandre was readying the kids for several presentations.
Alexandre is an excellent organizer and administrator. He is so talented with kids. He loves what he does and does what he loves with zest. However, as I heard him admit recently, “I'm a good administrator and I love music but I can't sing!” He can carry a tune, kind of, if the person at his side sings loud enough and knows how to carry that tune with him. When he is alone it is not so good.
He is so enthusiastic about what he does that you over look the fact that he can't sing. However, when he is leading a choir of thirty kids and teaching them to “|sing”, THAT is hard to over look. So last year the kids “sang” and people thought that it was adorable. And it was.
Today just after club we had our second cantata practice. Junior, our new music man, is working with the adults and kids. He is teaching us how to sing. After about half an hour with eight adults the kids joined the circle around the piano. Junior played and the kids belted out last year's version of the carol. I thought to myself, “Does he hear what I'm hearing?” It was horrible.
Here comes the magic moment. Junior stopped the choir of twenty-five and said, “Hit this note.” as he played. They couldn't. He hit it again and again they missed it HUGE.
So he began to work them up the scale slowly giving them tips along the way. “Do this. Don't do this. Try this.” Then he had the kids turned to “Angels We Have Heard On High” and he gave them a short introduction.
At that instant I knew that I was a part of a miracle. At that very moment the hair stood up on the back of my neck and tears welled up in my eyes. At that moment the sound that left their tiny lips was the most heavenly sound that I can ever remember coming from one of our children's choirs. They were singing “Angels We Have Heard On High” and it was as if I was among them. It was beautiful. It was wonderful!
One of the teens beside me said, “WOW! What a difference!” The tingle lasted for quite a few minutes. It was my Christmas miracle and I think that there are going to be several more before we're done.
In fact I'll share three more tomorrow. Don't let me forget!
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