I have something neat to share with you. It should put a smile on your face and maybe even a spring in your step.
Would it surprise you to learn that several hundred people – and an additional 650 singers – recently stood in the middle of a big city department store listening with joy in their faces as the name of Jesus Christ was proudly proclaimed?
It’s true.
First, some background.
The Wanamaker Grand Court Organ, located at the Macy’s department store in Philadelphia, is the largest operational pipe organ in the world. It’s played twice a day and utilized for concerts, especially during the Christmas season.
But this past fall, something unusual happened. The Opera Company of Philadelphia brought together some 650 singers, all disguised as shoppers in the store, who belted out an inspiring version of Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus.
The event was sponsored by the Knight Foundation’s “Random Acts of Culture” campaign.
To watch this, I think, is to maybe grab a very tiny foretaste of heaven. 
But isn’t it something – some of the very same people who cringe at the name of Christ spoken in almost any other context applaud a piece performed in His honor in the middle of a big city department store?
Click here to view the amazing moment:
I believe this incident illustrates that the Lord has built into every human heart a longing for Him, even though many are ignorant of what (or Whom!) it is they are looking.
This is ultimately why we’re here at Focus on the Family – to tell people about Him and tell them how He changed us, and can change them, too.
But one has to simply marvel that a piece written by George Handel in the summer of 1741 in London still causes hundreds of people to stop and listen in rapt attention inside a Philadelphia department store 269 years later.
It’s downright encouraging.
As we turn the corner into December and prepare our hearts and homes for Christmas, it’s my prayer that we’ll experience and meditate on those timeless words of Handel (inspired by the scriptures), especially his quote of Revelation 11:15 that “The kingdom of this world” will soon become “the kingdom of our Lord” and that “He shall reign forever and ever. Amen.”
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