Friday, December 05, 2008

A St. Olaf Christmas

Last night we had the privilege of attending the St. Olaf Christmas Festival, which, as usual, was awesome. It seems it should be streamed and broadcast live on Sunday for those who might be interested. Attending is always great because it brings me back to some wonderful years when I attended there. It was also a wonderful reminder of just how very many talented musicians there are in this world. It is amazing to realize all of these extremely talented musicians are under the age of 22. It is also an incredible reminder of the power of music to draw you into worship and the proclamation of the Word. There is something special about music that draws you into the story in a deeper, more layered, kind of way. It was just about the perfect way to kick the season of Advent into high gear and to begin to prepare the heart for the celebration of Christ breaking into this world.

Although, on another level it also tickled my pleasure of people watching. It was fun to see so many people all decked out in their Norwegian sweaters. It's almost obnoxious really. Still, I proudly wore mine. Yet, more fun than that was watching the musicians, especially the choir members. I enjoyed watching those who sang with their whole body, singing seemingly from the very bottom of their toes. I was struck by the lone young woman singing tenor with all of the other men. I was drawn to those who appeared to be a little more rough around the edges yet here they were singing like an angel. It really was pretty awesome.

No comments: