Most of us could use a transfusion of smiles and energy about now. So sit back, put your feet up and watch these beautiful children. You won't want to miss a move.
Even if you've seen this before, I promise it will make you smile all over again and give you an energy lift.
Fifth-graders who live in the Yupik Eskimo village of Quinhagak, Alaska, pop. 555 at the 2,000 census, put this together as a school computer project, intended for other Yupik villages in the area.
By now more than 1,200,000 people have viewed this performance of the "Hallelujah" chorus from Handel's Messiah.
Take a moment to marvel at what God can do with the work of one individual.
In 1741, George Frideric Handel considered himself something of a failure. Then he composed the entire score of Messiah over a period of 24 days. He is said to have felt God gave him the music, but he could not predict how this music would endure.
He could not have imagined that 360 years later, Eskimo children in a small Alaskan village would treat us to this creative performance accompanied by a choir singing the "Hallelujah" chorus.
Tthe teacher of this class in that small Eskimo school could not foresee anyone in any other place would ever see this video.
There's a lesson here for you and me
As individuals and as moms and dads we cannot know what God will do with our work–or our child's work.
Handel composed many other musical works, but only his "Hallelujah" chorus is sung and hummed all over the world. His Messiah is performed every Christmas season by choruses and choirs in huge cities and in tiny villages on every continent. At the time he could not have guessed the value of his work.
I can't help thinking of this Bible verse.
For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. –Ephesians 2:10
That verse wasn't aimed only at Handel and other famous people. It speaks to you and me, too.
Think you're on a treadmill and going nowhere?
Perhaps today you question the value of your life. Maybe you're facing your first Christmas alone after losing a loved one.
If you're a mom, your family most often notices what you do when you don't do it. Put a positive spin on that. Being taken for granted also means your family knows they can count on you.
Forget looking elsewhere to find your particular "good works." You're living with them. What's more, the family life you create, the love you pour into your days will live on in your children. Every day you are coloring their lives–and their picture of life.
Joy comes from giving ourselves fully and from knowing that what we do matters, whether we see the end result or not. God is faithful. What we do in faith will live on, one way or another.
Believe it. Let that truth put fresh energy in your tired body.
Then look again at the smiles on the faces of those Eskimo school children and sing Hallelujah! in your heart.
Someone needs us, needs our kind words, needs our encouragement. Those are gifts, too.
Now, let's enjoy this wonderful Christ-mas season of giving ourselves,
Lenore
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