Thursday, December 08, 2005

A Parade...A Procession

The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, a large celebration if ever there was one, takes place annually in New York City. When we attended that amazing event in about 1974, one million people were said to be there, lining the streets for several miles. This year, Mike Cope was there; he describes it in his blog. He says two and a half million people were there to watch the famous parade. In his November 30 entry, he tells all about it—look it up: http://mikecope.blogspot.com!

We live in a small town, and to see that many people all at once, in person, is mind-boggling to us. Ours is a SMALL small town. And we like it that way.

We went to our town’s Christmas Parade last Saturday night. The entire town turned out, and it lasted about twenty minutes and was some six blocks long. Santa presided atop the main big red fire engine. The parade entries were lighted, decorated pickups, trailers, trucks, four-wheelers, and horses. Carolers sang and children posed as elves and people threw out candy. It was a lot of fun. (Okay, maybe not the whole town was there, but at least three hundred people out of the 3500, I’ll bet.)

A parade is wonderful way to celebrate an important time. A small parade is just as exciting as a huge one--people coming together for one purpose--nobody busy or in a hurry.

Another procession comes to my mind--small, but of great moment. The three wise men and the shepherds could hardly be called a parade as they followed an unusually bright star in the east. They were led there to Bethlehem by the insistent Spirit of God to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, God’s own son, who would change everything by his love.

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