Carols by Candle light

Carols by Candle light

The year was 1989 and it was a cold December night in Winston Salem. The downtown city lights illuminated the black-backdrop of another star filled southern sky. I was a freshman in college and though it was a long time ago, I can still touch those days like they were just around the corner. This time of year my school has a celebration, a time of reflection and a time of being thankful to God for all He had done.

It’s called ‘Candlelight Carols.’

My stomach was rolling with butterflies of excitement. My parents were driving over from Raleigh with my grandmother. I had been away from home for months and this was one of the first ‘big’ occasions for my folks, and for that matter, everyone else’s folks, to come see what their kids had been up to while away from home. The school’s choir had been practising for months and we were going to use the big auditorium across the street at Salem Baptist Church for our celebration. Lined up in our dark outfits, shaved, and cleaned, we were standing tall as the sound board folks conducted mic checks. Lighting was adjusted and drama team, standing on their platform above the audience, was ready.

This was a big deal to us. As I look back of course there is a romanticism associated with the event just due to the size, my age etc.. Back in those days, hundreds of families and friends showed up. Floor and balcony were filled and we were all gathered for one thing…

A Celebration for the One… for all He had done.

The room is full; you can hear everyone talking as we file out from the back and stand on our risers. The bright lights partially block the view of the audience, but you can feel the energy of everyone’s anticipation, excitement and from the performers – a little fear. So many things to go right, and so many things to go wrong…

From the first drop of Mr. Smith’s hand, one song after the other rolls out and we all start to enjoy the event. The weeks of practise come together and with each song we reach our visitors. It is a great time and each part goes off with the normal ‘behind the scenes goof ups’ that only we know.

• We connect.
• To each other.
• To our audience.
• To our city, state and world.
• And to God.

For me, the best part of the event was the ending. We always ended our concert with the choir going down to the audience. The church auditorium is an octagon shaped floor space so the choir members literally went to the outside aisle between the pews and outer walls. We encompassed the room with anticipation. This was my favorite part of the whole production due to the intimacy and close proximity of our listeners, our loved ones, our families and friends.

Each singer carried an unlit candle and then, from each singer to the next, we lit our candle from the neighbor on one side and extended the light to the singer on our other side.

The lights were dimmed till the only light in the building came from the 30 plus candles. That alone was beautiful but then we turned to our beloved, now passed on leader, Gordon Smith, and waited for the cue to start.

With the flickering illumination of dozens of tiny fire lights, we started singing “Joy to the World, the Lord is come…”. The level of intimacy was so wonderful because the guests were right in front of us as we harmonized with each other across the room. By the time we got to the last verse we were ready, instruments dropped out, voices only singing while we raised our candles above our heads, “He rules the world, with truth and grace…”

The warm flickering candle light changes and shifts as all of the singers lifted their small candles. As we slowed the last phrase, “and wonders of His Love,” we crescendo on a high note. Tears began to moisten eyes and we finished the last verse with dead silence at the end. To be truthful… we were mainly a baptist group so ‘frozen chosen’ applies here, which normally means a possible ‘amen’ from the crowd and that is about it. But the silence heightened in the seconds after we finish the last words.

Wonders of His Love.

• It wasn’t about condemnation
• It wasn’t about rules.
• It wasn’t about performance and having to ‘meet’ His expectations.
• It wasn’t about being right.
• It was about Him and His love.

Still is…

I am now 51 and the years have rolled past like ripping pages from a wall calendar. It’s hard to believe this was 26 years ago. As I look at my classmates via facebook and see how they’ve grown I am amazed. Though we’ve grown apart, grown differently, ended up in places in our lives that we would never imagined, moved past those that are no longer with us, I feel, we’ve never left those moments. Something eternal happened on those nights where we put aside everything for a common goal. Those threads of eternal love that connected us have not, nor will ever fail.

This year is no different. With all of the turmoil in the world, the fashion in which we communicate and the contents of our everyday news events,

it would seem the world is literally going to hell in a hand-basket.

But just like the last few years, I will make the drive back to Winston Salem and sing with my peers. Maybe our outlook isn’t as ‘innocent’ as it was, maybe the road of life has been hard and changed us in ways we didn’t see coming, but for a moment, just for a moment in our lives, we will again set aside a few minutes for the One. The Christ.  This years event is December 5, 2015, 7:00 P.M. Salem Baptist Church, Winston Salem N.C. 

Peace on this week’s Journey.