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Message from Ann Rosendale

The view at ground level

By Ann Rosendale

When I was growing up, it was a tradition in my house to watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade on television. Dad would wake my sister and me, and we ate Mom’s delicious pancake breakfast in front of the TV as we stared in awe of the huge balloons and floats and marching bands. Watching the parade as a kid, I loved the loud music and the choreographed dance moves and the general “bigness” of the event. It was amazing how many people would turn out on the streets of New York City each year to watch the parade. This was something that was not to be missed!

A few years ago I actually got to attend the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. It was a different experience, seeing the parade through the lenses of my own eyes instead of through the camera lenses that I had been used to. In some ways the celebration seemed bigger and grander than what I remembered from watching it on television. I could actually feel the claustrophobia of the crowd pushing in around me on Broadway, and I could see the towering lights of Times Square just down the street.

But watching the parade in person also gave me new insight into the “smallness” of the event. When you’re a mere 20 feet away from a massive Snoopy balloon, you notice things that the network commentators don’t point out to you on TV. Perhaps the most entertaining sight to behold was the hundreds of balloon handlers, each tugging tightly on one of Snoopy’s strings to keep him from drifting into a building or lifting off into outer space. I heard the gasps of the people when one of the balloons floated precariously close to the crowd. (This happened to be the year, if you’ll recall, when gusty winds caused that unfortunate incident involving the M&M balloon and a 42nd Street lamp pole.) Standing along the parade route. you notice things that you otherwise wouldn’t: The sweat on the brows of the high-kicking Rockettes, or the water boy working tirelessly to keep the marching band hydrated and in-step.

I was reminded of all of the very important “small things” that we miss in our clamoring for bigger and brighter and louder. Had I stayed in the comfort of my living room and just watched the parade on television that year, I would have missed all the essential things going on at the ground level. And I never would have discovered that what happens underneath those big balloons is just as spectacular as all of that high-flying fanfare.

Many of us are preparing to make and eat huge meals this Thanksgiving holiday. We’ll have oodles of relatives over and pack our schedules full with holiday festivities. But amid the grandeur of abundance, let’s not forget the simple things: the hugs and the smiles and the invitations to our tables that we extend every day. We can find just as much fullness in the small stuff as we can in pomp and circumstance.

It is, in fact, in the small and the simple that the stuff of faith is found. Baby Jesus in a manger, a widow offering up two copper coins, the 12 disciples traveling from town to town with nothing but the clothes on their backs. Perhaps the greatest gift that we receive in worship each Sunday, the body and blood of Christ, is the smallest and simplest meal we will eat all week.

If you want to experience impressive and grand things in this life, don’t look up at the bright lights and big balloons. Look down at the ground level. Look at the small stuff. It’s there that you’ll find the things that matter most.

Pastor Ann Rosendale,

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