I celebrate the true meaning of Christmas all year long, but this is a special time for me

I celebrate the birth of Jesus all year long. I celebrate by being grateful for all the blessings I have received throughout my life. As the words of an old gospel song go, “When I think about the goodness of God, and all He’s done for me, my soul cries out “Hallelujah! Thank You, Lord for saving me”.

So, although I celebrate Christmas all year long, I really got into my Christmas season mode last week when I attended the Miami Oratorio Society’s annual Christmas concert at Sierra Norland Calvary Baptist Church. Conducted by Dr. Eugene Greco, and accompanied by a string ensemble with Douglas Brockington on the keyboard, the choir performed J.S. Bach’s “Christmas Oratorio,” and the Christmas portion of Handel’s “Messiah.”

When I walked into the sanctuary, it seemed that the weight of the world and its problems that at times seem so hard to shake, just fell to the ground. It’s Christmastime, and I and the others in the audience had come to rejoice in the grand sounds of the beautiful music that tells the story of Jesus’ birth and the promise of his coming again.

I know that somewhere in the world, wars are waging, people are dying and there is hate and strife at every turn. Even in our community, there are homeless people walking aimlessly through the streets, with nowhere to go. But the miracle of Christmas is that it brings new hope, and a deep settled peace that is there for the taking. It is because I believe the message of Christmas that I feel especially jubilant and grateful.

I am not the only one who feels this way. I can see that there are others, revealed by the smiles on the faces of strangers as we exchange friendly greetings.

I don’t know (maybe it’s the joy of the Lord in my soul). But whatever it is, Christmas never gets old to me. It always brings back warm memories of my childhood and the family tradition, of gathering at church on Christmas Eve, where I gave my Christmas speech I had practiced on for weeks.

Years later, the speech-giving would be passed on to my two sons. And I would sit in the congregation silently saying the words right along with them, bursting with parental pride when they recited it without a single mistake.

When I was a teenager, the Christmas story went along with the Union #5 skates that every Black youngster In Miami seemed to find under their tree on Christmas morning. It was a segregated time in Miami, but we didn’t let that put a damper on our fun. The city of Miami kindly blocked a section of Northwest 65th Street from 14th to 13the avenues in Liberty City, and we turned it into an outdoor skating rink.

Early on Christmas morning, just as the Shepards Parade (usually a makeshift parade made up of just about anybody who wanted to march through the streets as Christmas dawned, singing Christmas carols) made its way through the streets of Liberty City, the caroling from the parade would be replaced by the swishing sounds of the metal wheels of the roller skates making contact with the asphalt on 65th Street.

Youngsters came from all over – Coconut Grove and Overtown, and from Brown Sub (now known as Brownsville), and Bunche Park (now Miami Gardens), to skate. We girls usually wore dungarees, saddle oxfords and plaid shirts as our skating attire.

As I grew older and became more serious about the real meaning of Christmas, the season also found me sitting before the TV, my Handel’s “Messiah” score on my lap, singing along with a TV choir performing the “Messiah” (I had a score because I used to sing with the Miami Oratorio Society). It is my very own personal tradition. Whenever I know there is going to be a presentation of the masterpiece on television, I clear my schedule and get my chores done early to get ready to sing like I was actually performing with the choir. It’s times like this that I place my phone on silent, so I won’t be disturbed.

Call me eccentric. Call me old (I am). I don’t care. There’s just something about the words of the masterpiece – its music and the promises they remind us of - the promises of peace and good will to everyone, that gets to me.

But while peace and good will seem to be in short order in the world these days, this music and the words, which are straight from the Holy Bible, gives us reason enough to rejoice. And hope. Just Believe.

I don’t know what prompted Mr. Handel to write the masterpiece, but I would like to believe that he was moved by the Holy Spirit to search the scriptures for the right passages that first told of the coming Savior, and then of His return to earth someday. I believe that Mr. Handel was still being led by the Holy Spirit when he wrote the music to accompany the words, and then presented his work to the world as a gift.

So yes, this is a special time of the year for all of us – believers as well as non-believers. It is a time of reflection, of what life can be like all year long. Just believe.

The St. John Baptist Church, at 1328 NW Third Ave. in Overtown, will present a Christmas Cantata at 10 a.m. Dec. 22. It’s free and open to the public.