Houston's FBC Celebration 2011

Gregg Matte, John Bolin, FBC's choir, orchestra, members, and visionaries have done it again!  How they manage to tell the same story in a different way year after year amazes me.  Don't get me wrong...the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Christ is a story that will never get old, even if presented in the same fashion time and again, but to so creatively bring to life the Word of God is awe-inspiring and a joyous filled time. I think Isaac and I have a Christmas tradition in place that will last as long as we're in Houston.  This is our 3rd Christmas married and our 3rd Christmas to attend Celebration.  This year my parents, David and Laura, Laura's parents, and her grandparents joined us, along with our UBC friends Kathleen and Anthony.

2011 included dancing penguins, Frosty, and of course Santa flying down in his sleigh during The Spirit.

During The Songs, we got a kick that John had chosen some of the same songs that Matt chose for us to perform this morning.  Of course, a 300+ person choir and a full orchestra is much more impressive than our 80 person choir and 30+person orchestra, but FBC is a bigger congregation.  UBC has the same ratio, I think.  :)  The music was moving, and so deeply spoke the Truth of Christmas.

Isaac said he's fine only playing violin on stage and not from a harness 50 feet in the air.  :)

This year's The Story section was my favorite of the three years I've seen.  It began with Isaiah hearing from God and sharing with the people that a Savior would be born for them.  We saw the agony of the Israelites as they waited 700 from Isaiah's prophecy until the birth of Christ.  

Do you see the angel above the stable?!

Then, we heard and saw the shepherds respond to the angels as they went to visit the Baby in Bethlehem.  As Jesus grew into a toddler, we saw the approach of the Magi, coming to worship the King as a little boy.  Of course Paige tromped through the sanctuary, on her best big elephant girl behavior!  She stank up the place, but she can't help that even a clean elephant is a stinky creature!  *Side note...a Phi Lamb sister from my days at A&M and her family attend FBC.  Each year, her husband plays one of the Kings.  This year their little boy played toddler Jesus, so it was a touching moment seeing a real daddy bow to his own little boy representing the Savior of the world.  It made me think about how it must've been for Joseph watching Jesus grow.

The best thing is, the story doesn't end with the Magi visiting little Jesus and then returning East.  Jesus grew up.  He taught for 3 years about how to live life in a manner pleasing to God.  Jesus was betrayed by a friend, crucified on a cross with the weight of every past and future sin on Him, and rose from the dead 3 days later to proclaim that faith in Him ends the 2,000+ year void that had separated man from God.  Hallelujah!  Now that, my friends, is a CELEBRATION!

I might possibly be a bit obsessed with the flying angels each year...

And no worries, October 20th is already on my calendar to by tickets for next year.  Want to join us?