WE’RE ALMOST THERE

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WE’RE ALMOST THERE

This Sunday, you have an opportunity to be encouraged and to reach others with a message of Christmas hope. At six o’clock, our music ministry will present the musical “We’re Almost There,” supported by the involvement of 150 people, including 70 singers, a 33-piece orchestra, and a 20-voice children’s choir. The musical will be interpreted for the deaf, and there will be a deaf choir signing one of the selections. Please make plans to join us for this meaningful time of worship and reflection, and be sure to invite family and friends to come with you. To help prepare us for Sunday evening, I asked Penny Folsom, our minister of music, to describe the musical and the theme for us.

— Josh Hall

“We’re Almost There” is a retelling of the story that we all know so well. And yet — it’s a story we need to hear again and again. And it’s a story the world needs to hear — over and over. This musical is a combination of glorious celebration, artful remembrance of the nativity story, and thoughtful contemplation of what it felt like to be Mary and Joseph.

As they travel the lonely road to Bethlehem, Joseph tenderly whispers to his new bride, “Hold on a few more miles, you’re almost there.” But these words are full of meaning, hope, and encouragement for us as well.

For as we consider the journey taken by Mary and Joseph — not only their physical journey to Bethlehem, but their individual spiritual and emotional journeys as they grapple to understand, to adjust, to humbly follow — we find parallels to our own journey of faith. Sometimes, just when we think we’re ‘almost there,’ life throws us a curve ball; something we didn’t expect, something we have no idea how to handle. Surely Mary and Joseph must have been overwhelmed with the amazing, miraculous, and yet perplexing and disruptive turn of events that God had wrought in their lives. It is in their responses that we find the answer to our own perplexities and disruptions.

We can learn that in the midst of our own lonely road, when we respond as did Mary and Joseph, with a willing heart, a prayer of submission, and a desire to follow; we find to our amazement, that Jesus, our Emmanuel, is closer than a heartbeat. That He pleads with us to allow Him to be born anew in our own hearts. That indeed, if we listen closely, we may hear His gentle whisper, “Hold on a few more miles, you’re almost there.”

— Penny Folsom