Amy Angel: A Christmas Memory
This story given me over 20 yrs. ago in a packet of Christmas stories --- no name of author
Amy Brady
There are advantages and disadvantages to living in a small town. One advantage is that everyone knows everyone else. One disadvantage is that everyone knows everyone else.
Everyone knew Amy Brady, only child. She was born seventeen years before with so many birth problems: organs, bones, muscles... no one expected her to live. But she did. Amy Brady, crippled in body, but not in spirit. With her hunched back and twisted spine, everyone could recognize her, even from a distance.
And here she was ... sitting outside the choral room door agonizing. "What am I doing here? I'll never be chosen for the choir."
One advantage to living in a small town is that they develop traditions. A Christmas tradition in Maysville was the annual pageant performed in the school auditorium. It had been performed for so many years that no one could remember when it had begun or even who had written it. But it had become the focal point of the Christmas season for many of the townspeople.
"I don't want to go through the rejection again," thought Amy. "I try not to care, but I do. I don't want to be hurt any more."
More people tried out each year for the pageant than there were parts. Young children hoped to be shepherd boys, older ones, shepherds or wise men. Singers wanted to be part of the angelic choir, and a few hoped to be chosen as the innkeeper, the angel of the Lord, Joseph and Mary. It was a small stage, so many were turned away.
"Mr. Simmons will never chose me for a part. I just don't fit. But at least I don't have to audition for Mrs. Franklin again," Amy mused.
Mrs. Franklin had taught music at Maysville High for 30 years. She had cast, coached and directed the pageant all that time. Amy had a beautiful singing voice and had gone to auditions for the angelic choir as a freshman. Without letting her sing, Mrs. Franklin had taken one look at Amy's misshapen body and declared, "Child, you just don't fit. I don't remember anywhere in the script where it calls for a crippled girl. Everyone would stare at you and that would make you uncomfortable. It would make them uncomfortable, too."
Without singing a single note, Amy had been thrust back through the choral room door. Hurt and humiliated, she vowed never to try out again. But now, Mrs. Franklin had retired.
This year, there was a new choral teacher, Mr. Simmons. Where Mrs. Franklin had ruled with fear and force, Mr. Simmons led with love and compassion. He demanded perfection, but understood when it was not reached. And he sang with such power and beauty. He had asked to see Amy after class and suggested that she audition.
"I should leave now and avoid the pain. There's no place for a girl like me in this pageant. I don't want to be rejected again. Still... Mr. Simmons asked me to try out. I owe it to him. But he'll never choose me. I'm going to leave before it's my turn."
As Amy struggled to her feet, the door pushed open and Mr. Simmons called out, "Amy, you're next." He sat at the piano to accompany her. When the audition was finished, he thanked her and told her the results would be posted on the choral room door the next day.
Amy couldn't sleep. Her mind wavered between feelings that she did not fit, and the great need to be accepted and to use her talent to praise the Christ Child. By morning, her stomach was in knots.
The next day, as her third period music class approached, Amy timidly glanced at the list on the choral room door. At the bottom was listed the members of the angelic choir. Her name wasn't there. Rejected again!
But as she turned to enter the class, she caught her name post at the top of the page. She, Amy Brady, had been chosen to be the Angel of the Lord. She would sing the only solo in the whole pageant. She would sing to the Christ Child, the Son of God. There had to be a mistake. Mr. Simmons would not make her --- so visible.
But after class, Mr. Simmons asked to talk to her about her part. "Amy, I hope this doesn't upset you, but I need to stage your part a little differently this year."
"Hidden offstage," Amy thought.
He continued, "I would like to have a pyramid built, place the other angels on it, and put you at the very top. I think the message you'll sing is the central part of the pageant."
The years of hurt exploded. "You don't want me in the middle of the stage! Won't the way I look ruin the whole thing? You don't want me where everybody will stare at me!"
"Amy, I chose you because you deserve the part; your voice is extraordinary. What you think of yourself, I cannot change; that is something only you can deal with. I have no problem with you singing this part, and in this pageant the angel of the Lord is center stage. You must come to peace with yourself or you must tell me to choose someone else. It is your decision."
That night, Amy prayed and made her decision. The rehearsals were exhausting. Her body ached after struggling to the top of the pyramid, but great joy filled her heart as she sang again and again to the Christ Child.
One advantage to living in a small town is that when there is a community event, everyone comes. And so, the Sunday before Christmas, the whole town of Maysville crammed into the school auditorium for the Christmas pageant. Amy Brady, only child, misshapen in body, but not in spirit, stood on the top of a silver-white pyramid and sang her heart out to the Christ Child and to his mother.
Fear not, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.
What Child is this, who, laid to rest, On Mary's lap is sleeping?..
Never had the angel sung more sweetly.
No one had realized how sick Amy really was, I suppose, because they were so used to seeing her broken body. So it was a shock when she died that next Tuesday. Her mother conveyed a last request from Amy to Mr. Simmons would he please sing at her funeral?
"I've never been in your church. It would be very difficult." The excuses piled up, but in the end, he agreed.
So that Christmas Eve, two of Amy's strong classmates from the football team, rolled Mr. Simmons down the aisle of her church and lifted his wheelchair up the one step to the podium and handed him the microphone.
"Before beginning, I'd like to say: I think Amy touched heaven with her angel song last Sunday night. And Jesus decided that she needed to stay." Then, Mr. Simmons sang with all his heart for a daughter of God, as she had sung for His Son.
There are advantages to living in a small town.
Author Unknown --- Submitted by Mary Hokanson
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