Fr Robert Hendrickson

Dear Friends in Christ,

Today was the Christmas pageant rehearsal. As always, it was chaotic and joyful and stressful and a glimpse of those wonderful moments that make up the life of living, loving congregations.

Later in the day, I went to a music recital with the boys. It’s part of a music therapy program. Most of the kids there have some condition or another — autism, adhd, Down’s Syndrome, or one of a thousand other things that put kids at the margins of classrooms, families, and friendships.

Each kid went up to play. Bravely and tremulously. Some played piano, some violins, some guitars, and others glockenspiels.

The tunes they played were everything from Hot Cross Buns to In the Bleak Midwinter. There was Yankee Doodle Dandy and cowboy songs and some Tchaikovsky too.

Some kids laughed nervously. Some covered their eyes. Some focused tightly on their music pages and others shook and trembled. Some couldn’t see and others didn’t want to be seen.

But there they were. Bravely. Courageously giving all that they had to make beauty and joy together.

The truly remarkable thing was the encouragement of the community there. The worse a kid did, the louder the clapping and the cheers. Every parent there knew what it took for that kid to be there. They knew what a struggle it was to find those moments of creative focus and happy play.

In a world where these kids are treated like problems, left behind, and regarded as slow or aggravating or distracted — in that world moments like this are priceless.

I suppose, drawing this to some theological conclusion, it was impossible not to see the image of God revealed in those kids and parents. Daring, loving, encouraging, welcoming, quick to laugh, and ready to support — all of it revealed the best of humanity in one room for an hour or so.

There will be liturgies and music and more in the week ahead that will no doubt stir and inspire, but it will be that concert that will stay with me this year. It will be that brief glimpse of a humanity that remembered to love and to risk being loved even if just for an hour.

Fr Robert