At the beginning of the performance/sing-along, our director gave an introduction. She commented about how each person in the audience has some kind of relationship with Handel's Messiah. Each person has a story to tell about how they came to know and love this most-famous work by this great composer. Each person can remember the first time they sang it, and they have beautiful memories that they brought with them to our performance. As we began to sing, I imagined that the air in the auditorium was thick with all of these memories.
I loved every moment of it. The soloists were inspiring. The mass choir was amazing. Singing the choruses, hearing my sister next to me...my niece beside her...my mother blending in beautifully...it was truly a blessing and a Christmas gift.
As we were driving home, my mother mentioned again how one of the pieces sung by the soloists was my grandmothers favorite. She had always loved He Shall Feed His Flock. I had always known this, and it is my favorite as well. But then my mother told me a little more to that story than I had realized.
When my mother was in high school, her father passed away. That first autumn without him was, of course, a difficult one for her family. In December, just two months after her husband had died, my grandmother was invited by a friend from church to attend a performance of the Messiah. She took my mother along...this was to become my mother's first experience in her relationship with Handel's Messiah.
My mother said that my grandmother cried through the entire performance. I can only imagine the different types of grief that my mother and grandmother felt during those moments.
But as we drove home yesterday, my mother commented why He Shall Feed His Flock had become my grandmother's favorite piece:
He shall feed his flock, like a shepherd
and He shall gather in his bosom
and gently lead those that are with young.
Come unto Him, all ye that labor
and he will give you rest.
Take his yoke upon you and learn of Him
for He is meek and lowly of heart
and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
What those words must have meant to her that day! How they must have laid upon her soul and her heart! Here was this young mother: suddenly thrust into taking care of her family alone, missing her husband, feeling overwhelmed with grief and life. And here was her Savior telling her that He will gather her and her children close, He will give them rest, He will take the yoke with her. He will lead her, she was not alone.
I am so very glad our director brought our memories to mind as we began to sing yesterday. Now I have so much more to bring to each Messiah that I sing...for years to come.
At the end of the performance yesterday, we concluded with the Hallelujah chorus. When it was over, my mother had tears in her eyes. She couldn't sing the last line. Tears of joy that we were together. Tears of joy for all the memories of the past. Tears of joy for the blessings that God has given us through Handel's Messiah.
Amen!! All is well, all is well.
