Is There a Place?

As I confessed in an earlier post, I am a bit of a choral geek and have been since elementary school. When I was in junior high I joined the youth choir at a local church that some of our neighbors attended. Even though this church was a different denomination than the church my family belonged to, its music ministry was stellar, the highpoint of which was the annual Living Christmas Tree show featuring the high school and adult choirs with a professional orchestra. The first act featured all the fun, secular, winter festival-type songs, with choreography and a little storyline as well. The second act opened with a reading of the Christmas story from the Gospel of Luke and focused on sacred Christmas repertoire, with the choir ensconsed in the 'living Christmas tree,' a large steel structure in the shape of a pine tree hung with garlands in which the singers' heads take the place of ornaments.

The music director was Steve Amerson, a young conductor who also had a gorgeous tenor voice. The highpoint of the show for many was when Steve would turn to face the audience and sing a solo late in the second half. One of the years I sang in the show (waaaaaay back in the 80s), his solo was a new song called "Is There a Place?" I remembered the song when putting together my own Christmas music playlist earlier this month; to be honest, I'm a little surprised the song isn't better known. The only online source I could find of the entire song is this YouTube video, which is the audio track accompanied by a slideshow of Christmas photos. But I thought it was worth sharing, not only for Steve's performance but for the question it poses on Christmas Eve -- Is there a place that you can offer where this new life can begin?