The Christ Child Asleep by Bernardino Luini
I hope that all my RevGal friends are geting some well-deserved rest today - sometime today! Or tomorrow for sure!
Our family celebration, including gift giving, was on Friday-Saturday. So yesterday was a day of resting up for evening services, going to The Nativity Story movie (see previous post) and then 7 hours at the church, during which time we sang two services, the 7:00 and 11:00.
In between services the choir, clergy and altar party enjoyed a wonderful repast and time of fellowship provided by the Daughters of the King. And I had the pleasure of teaching my young friend Robert to begin knitting. He has been begging me to teach him for months, ever since he saw me knitting before choir practice. He is almost 13 and a very accomplished pianist, so I was not very surprised that he "got it" almost immediately. (He is the only youth in our adult choir, too...perfect pitch, amazing soprano (for now!)
Robert is an exceptionally precocious young man, and one of his traits is telling bad, bad jokes. For instance, last night he was telling the one about the bus driver who had on his bus Two All Beef Pattys, Special Ross, Leonard, etc. etc. (This is more or less endearing, depending upon your mood and whether it is CHRISTMAS EVE AND YOU ARE AT CHURCH FOR 7 STRAIGHT HOURS, SHUT UP SHUT UP!)
My taking Robert to the other room for a knitting lesson was greatly appreciated by his tired audience. One on one, he is much calmer, and it helps him to have something to focus on. HIS family had been there from 4:00 until 1:00 a.m., because they participated in the 5 p.m. service, too. His mom is our wonderful organist, his dad was co-celebrating the Eucharists, and I think Robert just needed a little extra attention yesterday.
Of course, he got so involved with the knitting that he didn't want to stop when we began rehearsing again, and I had to speak to him and finally take it away.
It takes a village, I guess, and I remember well all the people who helped "raise" me at church while my parents were running things. Although laity, they were involved in almost every ministry, so we were there pretty much every time the church opened.
Thank you Klagers, Eddys, Graveses, Engelberts, Walkers, Stoehrmanns, Daniels, Mr. Atherton, Mrs. Kalinec, and many others whose names are not coming to me now. I'm certain that I could be pretty much of a smarty-pants (although usually a quiet one, as I was mostly reading!) and needy of extra attention, and their care and influence is not lost or forgotten.
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