Arnold, CA…Each of us have our own family and individual holiday traditions. This year they will be interrupted and changed for many of us. One of the casualties will be the many community sing along performances of George Frideric Handel’s Messiah. May 2021 bring the return of live music again.

Every year I watch and listen to at least one performance of this classic work. Not only is it inspiring but it also brings back a moment in time for me from 40 years ago as if it was yesterday. The high school I attended was asked to send a few students to a choral workshop that was to be led by the conductor of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and was that year being held at Pacific Union College above the Napa Valley.

About 400 students attended that year from public, private and parochial schools across Northern California. Over four days we learned, practiced and sang. At the end of the workshop the group performed a community concert with the students accompanied by an orchestra.

There were probably more students in the choir than attended the concert but on this day even that didn’t matter. I do remember we all had to stand angled on the risers as there wasn’t enough room for us all to stand straight. The 400 attendees not only filled the stage but spilled off the edges.

The about an hour program was filled with various works. The final number was Handel’s Halleluiah Chorus. 400 young pure voices singing as only young voices can delivered a moment for me that will be forever a high point of my life. Being a part of what seemed for at least a few minutes a united group lifting up our voices to God was an unforgettable event.

Those 400 voices not only filled the building but it seemed to reverberate through it. When the song ended there was an almost active quiet in the room and an atmosphere that no one seemed willing to break too soon or it would have been sacrilege.

It didn’t matter on that day if the musicians were Christian, Jew, Agnostic or Atheist. Those 4 minutes opened a door to a sacred place that was impossible to deny. All of us knew at least in the moments when the building was still shaking and music echoing that God was real and something supernatural was with us if only for a few brief moments.

Our hope is that each of you has some point in time where even if only for a few minutes Christmas became real to you. For me even 40 years later those few moments united with 400 young voices brought those Hallelujahs to life.