Combining with other stakes in the area, our stake has put on a large Christmas concert the last two years, held in large performance halls and flying in guest conductors (last year it was Craig Jessop and this year it was Cory Evans).
It was a huge time commitment as practiced for months in addition to about ten hours of rehearsal with Dr. Evans the week of the performances. It was the first time Sarah or I had performed in any type of choir outside of a few ward choir songs in sacrament meeting. I think we both had a lot of fun doing it, but I realized during one of our performances that my preference is to be in the opposite seats during a concert, listening to the beautiful music rather than trying to create it.
The attendance was lower than expected (most likely due to an ice storm that hit the night of our first performance), but it was fun working with Dr. Evans and learning from him.
(Sarah's "pearls" are actually from a plastic Christmas tree garland.)
Here we are with Dr. Evans - I told him this would go on our blog with a readership of about ten people and he was okay with that.
I'm sure my mom was hoping for more than this when she hinted at it in her weekly family email, so I'll share a thought that I had during one of our performances.
For those of you who have ever heard me sing, you know I'm not much of a singer, so learning to sing my parts was a challenge for me. (If you haven't heard me sing, consider that a blessing, as Sarah mentioned to me one day when we were practicing my parts that I sounded like Kermit the Frog when I sing.)
In our performances, it took a lot of concentration for me to sing my part, and during one of the songs by a soloist, I asked myself, "Am I forgetting the Savior this Christmas season, particularly in this concert as I focus so much on my parts?"
For some reason, my thoughts then went to Simeon and Anna in the temple when Jesus was brought to the temple to be presented to the Lord according to the Law of Moses. Later that night, I looked at the account in Luke chapter 2, and I noticed a few things that I never really had before. First, for some reason, I had always assumed that Simeon and Anna were together in some way (married or served together in the temple), but that doesn't appear to be the case.
Simeon is described as a just and devout man and that the Holy Ghost was upon him but it doesn't appear that he served in the temple but rather was prompted by the Spirit to go to the temple that day. Prior to that time, he had received a revelation from the Holy Ghost that he would see the Christ before his death, but he didn't know when that time would be. Although Jesus was only forty-one days old, he was able to recognize the Savior because he was close to the Spirit and its promptings.
Anna, on the other hand, had been a widow for about eighty-four years and served in the temple day and night. She also recognized the Savior despite him being such a young baby. The thing that stood out most to me from this story is that both Simeon and Anna were close to the Holy Ghost regardless of what they did (Simeon doesn't appear to serve in the temple while Anna appears to have done so for a very long time) and that it was the Holy Ghost that helped then identify the Savior, in the very same way that the Holy Ghost helps each of us to identify the Savior and the influence He has on our everyday lives. I hope that at this Christmas season and throughout our lives, we strive to be close to the Spirit so that we can find the Savior in our lives.
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