Folks Who Show Up

Since 1957 our local church, Trinity United Methodist Church, has sponsored a live Nativity scene on Rome's busiest street. Actually in 1957 the Turner-McCall Boulevard bridge over the Oostanaula was under construction and would not open for another few months, so I suppose that first year the street wasn't quite so busy. I first stood in the scene as a teen in 1962. 

This is the first year that Sheila and I have been a part of the necessary work of taking apart and putting away the stable till next December. My seventy-five year old muscles, tendons, and bones are reminding me of my age this moment, and my part was relatively small compared to my older fellow tenor Lynn Popham who led the effort. I am sorry I was not available the day the stable was built in December, largely by these same folks. 

I am so thankful for "those who show up", aren't you?  Every church, every school, every storytelling festival, every civic club, every scout troop, is dependent on that usually small group of "folks that show up".  

This morning it was Tom and Cindy Brown, Thom Holt, Monty Rasure, Kay Lowe, all led by Lynn and Sandra Popham and their granddaughter Hannah. Jamie Palmer happened to drive by, stopped, and lent some younger muscle to the effort for an hour or so. This afternoon, after lunch,  a few of us will be back to move one last load. 

I love this tradition of my church, as anyone who has read my blog the last 17 years knows. Most folks are like me. We show up to stand for a shift. Maybe bring a few goodies to share with those participating. We love to watch and let the scene inspire us to consider the real meaning of the season. But that's about it. 

Over the years several generations of the Craven family have borne most of the putting up and taking down chores. Eulaine and Paul Camp spent years organizing the costumes and seeing that all the shifts were peopled. Many others have helped with that since the Camps gave it up, including Sandra Popham this year. 

Thank goodness for those, at Trinity and in all sorts of community endeavors, who work behind the scenes, usually with little recognition, to make things happen.

(If you are looking for a welcoming church community, we'd love to have you at Trinity. You don't have to be a carpenter!)