When Elyse (soon to be a freshman at SAU) was in 2nd grade, she had one of those things that was the bane of my existence when our kids were young – a school choir concert.

Promise me you won’t tell her my true feelings. Because I love her, I gushed at how pretty she looked (this was true) and how fantastic she sounded (I don’t know if this was true as I couldn’t hear her).

All these years later, she doesn’t need to know my true thoughts on the matter.

But I can share with you in secret. Shhhhh…

Oh my, they were tough to sit through. Torturous.

For an hour (seemed like 3) you had to watch some poor elementary school music teacher try her darndest to herd a couple hundred K-2 students through the program in an orderly manner.

No one could question her effort – she gave it the old college try.

But chaos reigned none-the-less.

Bedlam.

Pandemonium.

Horribly out of tune bedlam and pandemonium.

What made the ordeal even worse was that there were like 9 chairs for 1,232 adults. (That might be a bit of an exaggeration.) So, when I say it was tough to sit through, I should more accurately say, “stand through.”

I told a friend I’d rather get kicked in the stomach than have to sit through (stand through) another elementary school concert. The pain would be shorter lived.

The most exciting part of the whole affair was when this young mother (around 25ish) got into an argument with a not so young grandmother (around 65ish). Right there in the middle of the kindergarten-part of the program they started yelling at each other. Apparently, the young lady stood up to get a better view of her daughter. The grandma was incensed because her view of her grandson was obstructed by the young mother.

I thought they were going to come to blows.

Well, no I didn’t. I knew they were just yelling.

But inwardly I hoped they would come to blows. It would have livened up the event nicely. UFC at Winchell Elementary! My money would have been on the grandma. She looked scrappy. (To head any angry letters off at the pass, I really didn’t inwardly hope they would come to blows. I just thought a grandma doing some UFC in an elementary school cafeteria was a funny image, and saying she was scrappy made me chuckle. So, feel free to ignore this whole paragraph and chalk it up as one solely for the amusement of the author.)

These two ladies were willing to go to extremes to see their kids! Fortunately, Mr. Hughs, the principal, intervened.

No fists flew.

Yet it was clear, they were willing to go to extremes to see their kids.

Willing to go to extremes to see their kids.

Hmmm…

Sounds a lot like God to me.

These irate and mildly irrational ladies reminded me of God?!

Yes. Yes, they did.

Like them, He was/is willing to go to extremes to see and be with His children.

Did you know that the Bible makes it clear that you are a child of God?

“See what manner of love He has given unto us, that we could be called children of God” (1 John 3:1).

“He destined us for adoption to be his children” (Eph. 1:5).

You are a child of God. Did you know that?

And like the two ladies at Winchell Elementary, He is willing to go to extremes to see you.

“Therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel” (Is. 7:14).

Immanuel.

God with us.

God became a baby.

To see us.

To be with us.

Immanuel.

God willing to go to extremes to see us.

To be with us.