snippets ;
All i have are words to take your heart away.
Christmas love [by Candy Chand]
Sunday, December 02, 2007
My son, Nicholas was in kindergarten that year. It was an exciting season for a six year old. For weeks, he'd been memorising songs for his school's 'Winter Pageant'. On the morning of the dress rehearsal, i filed in ten minutes early. I found a spot on the cafeteria floor and sat down. As i waited, the students were led into the room. Each class, accompanied by their teacher, sat cross-legged on the floor. Then, each group, one by one, rose to perform their song.

Because the public school system had long stopped referring to the holiday as 'Christmas', I didn't expect anything other than fun, commercial entertainment- songs of reindeer, Santa Claus, snowflakes and good cheer. So when my son's class rose to sing 'Christmas Love', i was slightly taken back by its bold title. Nicholas was aglow, as were all his classmates, adorned in fuzzy mittens, red sweaters and bright snowcaps upon their heads.

Those in the front row-center stage- held up large letters, one by one, to spell out the title of the song. As the class sing "C is for Christmas", a child would hold up the letter C. Then, "H is for Happy", and on and on, until each child holding up his portion had presented the complete message, 'Christmas Love'.

The perfomance was going smoothly, until suddenly, we noticed her; a small quiet girl in the front row holding the letter M upside down- totally unaware her letter 'M' appeared as 'W'. The audience of 1st throughout 6th graders snickered at this little one's mistake. But she had no idea they were laughing at her. So she stood tall, proudly holding her 'W'.

Although many teachers tried to shush the children, the laughter continued until the last letter was raised, and we saw it together. A hush came over the audience and eyes began to widen.

In that instant, we understood- the reason we were there, why we celebrated the holiday in the first place, why even in the chaos, there was a purpose for our festivities.

For when the last letter was held high, the message read loud and clear:

CHRIST WAS LOVE

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