The Twenty-third Day of Advent: I Experienced The Promise Breaking Forth from the Bud

Yesterday I wrote of the Promise of Advent.  Last night I saw that Promise breaking forth from the bud.  We were invited to dinner by our son Paul and his wife, Helen.  After dinner we attended an Annual Christmas Concert at an Interfaith Center.  That’s where I experienced the Promise breaking forth.

Hundreds of people were lined up waiting for the doors to open.  Hundreds of people filed into the auditorium filling every available seat.  “Three cheeks to a chair,” someone announced, so “everyone can have a place to sit” and the audience responded. An orchestra of at least 40, a Children’s Choir of over 30, and an Adult Choir of nearly 100 were seated before us.  Above their heads a banner proclaimed:  “All Faiths, All Ages, All Races, All Sexes.”  

I looked at the program and noted names representing many different nationalities and cultures:  Youstra, Scimonelli, Kim, Javadov, Onukwugna, Cueves, Ndekwu, and Williams.  I looked at the audience and saw the same phenomena.  There were people of many colors, ages and appearances there. Some of the men were bald, others had hair.  Some in the audience were young, some were old, and some in-between.  What a mixture—people, some not so well off, others well-to-do (you can always tell)—all together in one place.  This is God’s Dream, I thought, coming to fruition, “a friendly world of friendly folk beneath a friendly sky.”  This is the Promise of Advent, even now breaking forth from the bud.  That’s how I perceived it. 

“Joy to the world! (we sang together) the Lord has come:  Let earth receive her King.

Let every heart prepare him room, And heav’n and nature sing…”

Thanks, Paul & Helen, for the evening!