Handel's Messiah Mike and I had the privilege of attending the entire opera this year. It was incredible. I was touched as hundreds of audience members felt the holiness and joy of the story of Christ, his birth and resurrection. It was a beautiful moment. Then, as I was reading this month's Ensign, there was a specific article on Handel and I loved it. Read it here
I especially enjoyed the way it ended:
In her epic poem, Aurora Leigh, Elizabeth Barrett Browning expressed the eloquent thought:
Earth’s crammed with heaven,
And every common bush afire with God;
But only he who sees takes off his shoes;
The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries.9
May each of us unlatch our shoes and cram our labors with the essence of heaven, and may none of us be found plucking blackberries when a much grander, loftier work needs to be done.
And at the end of our divinely ordained days, may we be able to acknowledge, with Handel, that God has visited us in our labors.
ChoirI'm not a great singer, in fact, I'm probably barely a good one. I'm good enough to know when I sound bad and I can stay quiet. I originally joined choir so my husband would go. He's really great and needed, especially in a choir. Then I realized how much I enjoyed singing praises to our God and I started going for me. We have a really incredible choir here and an inspiring director. I've already learned so much from the people around me who generously allow me to sing with them and I look forward to it each week. I love learning how to do new things and I really love watching my husband share his talents. This past Sunday we sang in church and my belief in Jesus Christ as the Son of God and the holiness of His mission to save us was reiterated to my soul through music. It was beautiful and moving and I loved, in a small way, being a part of that testimony.Childrens' VoicesI work with the kids at church in my Primary calling. I love being in there and especially love listening to them sing. They sang in church this past Sunday too...Away in a Manger. When Jace sat down next to me, he was beaming and leaned over to say, "Mom, I really feel the spirit right now." I did too. I was touched by their little voices singing about what they believe in and I love how music simply teaches truth. We've had a wonderful time this season singing along to just about every Christmas carol at home and in the car...Parker and James can't wait to see what the next song will be, even if Jace says, "Please, can we listen to a rockin' song instead of Christmas songs????" I promised him, after December 25th, we can be done, but positively not until then!
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