EASTER FOR ALL AGES
BECAUSE HE LIVES
By Bob Allen
CAST OF CHARACTERS
Narrator A man in his
fifties
Grandmother
Webslow The matriarch of the
Webslow clan, Grandmother
has been bed-ridden for over twenty years.
Grandfather
Webslow Caring for
his invalid wife has taken a physical
toll on Grandfather.
Richard A young
pastor who married one of the granddaughters
of the Webslow clan.
Barbara A Webslow
granddaughter. Married to Richard.
Jonathan The eldest
first generation Webslow. He has served as a
missionary for over thirty years.
Harold One of the
many Webslow grandchildren.
Sharon The wife of
Harold.
All Scripture
quotations are taken from the King James Version.
PRODUCTION NOTES
Because He Lives should be performed in
Reader’s Theatre style with the characters seated on stools in front of the
choir. As people rise to speak they will
assume the character they are portraying with appropriate voice and gestures,
but with off-state focus, as if the entire action were taking place somewhere
else rather than on the stage itself.
The object of such an approach is to compel the audience members to use
imagination and see the vents take place in their own minds. Grandmother Webslow should be portrayed as
blind, but her crippled state should not be overemphasized to the place that
she becomes pitiful. Inner strength in
spite of physical weakness should be her dominant characteristic. A suggestion of her physical condition will
be more effective than complete imitation of her many ailments.
The sketch
can be performed with or without the use of a choir. If a choir is used a variety of Easter
anthems would be inserted at the appropriate places marked in the script. The use of a choir can expand the sketch into
a full-length Easter program.
The scene
begins in Grandmother Webslow’s bedroom, moves to the church auditorium for the
funeral service and then returns to the living room of the Webslow home place.
SCENE ONE
(NARRATOR sits at stage right, separate from the rest of the
actors. GRANDFATHER, GRANDMOTHER,
BARBARA AND RICHARD are seated on stools in that order.
CHOIR SONG ON AN EASTER THEME
NARRATOR: Grandmother
Webslow was already blind when I first met her. Blind,
and so crippled with arthritis that she hadn’t been out of bed for several
years. Actually, she wasn’t my
grandmother at all. But we all called her
that. She had a way of adopting the
young fellows
who were dating her granddaughters, and I was one of those.
GRANDMOTHER: Who have
you brought for me to look over this time Barbara? Another young beau?
BARBARA: This
is Richard, Grandma. Richard, this is my
Grandmother Webslow.
NARRATOR: A
shriveled hand raised a few inches from the coverlet on which it rested and I reached out instinctively to grasp it. My hands seemed to swallow hers, but she grabbed
hold of one of my fingers and squeezed
until it hurt.
RICHARD: Hello,
Mrs. Webslow.
GRANDMOTHER: You might
as well call me Grandma. All of
Barbara’s other beaus do.
BARBARA: (LAUGHING
GAILY) Grandma, you promised not to tell
about the
others.
GRANDMOTHER: Did I
now? You bring so many boyfriends by
that I forget which ones I promised not to talk about.
BARBARA: Grandma!
GRANDFATHER: Don’t
pay any attention to her, Richard. She
loves to tease. I’ve been putting up with it for fifty
years.
GRANDMOTHER: Putting
up with it? Is that what you say behind
me back?
GRANDFATHER: Now
mother. You know that’s not what I
meant.
GRANDMOTHER: Of
course I do. And Barbara knows I’m
teasing so I expect she’s warned Richard all about me and my
forgetfulness.
BARBARA: She
doesn’t really forget, Richard. Grandma
never forgets anything.
RICHARD: So
she does remember all your boyfriends.
Sounds interesting. You and
I are going to have a long talk, Grandma.
GRANDMOTHER: That’s
my boy. Well, let’s see. There was Arnold.
BARBARA: Grandma! I was only six that summer.
GRANDMOTHER: And then
there were the twins, Terry and Torrey.
BARBARA: Could
we talk about something else?
RICHARD: No,
this is just getting interesting.
GRANDFATHER: The
ice cream bars are ready in the kitchen.
BARBARA: Thanks,
Grandpa. Come on Richard, we can’t miss
Grandpa’s ice cream bars.
RICHARD: I’ll
be back to talk to you alone, Grandma.
NARRATOR: Grandma
Webslow was better than a diary. She
was a living record of everything that had ever
happened in her family. Lacking
sight and touch she compensated for it by listening and remembering everything
she heard. Lying there in bed day after day, she
would pray specificially for each member of the family: her children, their
spouses, the grandchildren and even their boyfriends and girlfriends. Barbara was right. She never forgot anything. On one of our visits to her home we tried to
tease her by having
Barbara introduce me by my middle name.
BARBARA: Good
morning, Grandma. I have someone here I
would like you to meet. His name is Bruner.
RICHARD: (IN
A DISGUISED VOICE) Pleased to meet you,
Grandma Webslow.
GRANDMOTHER: Another
new beau? Whatever happened to that nice
fellow named Richard?
BARBARA: Grandma! What will Bruner think?
RICHARD: (STILL DISGUISING VOICE) Richard?
What’s this all about, Barbara?
BARBARA: Oh,
Bruner. I didn’t want you to know.
RICHARD: Who
is this Richard anyway?
GRANDMOTHER: I’ll
tell you who he is. He’s a big tease who
ought to be ashamed of
himself for trying to pull the wool over an old woman’s eyes.
BARBARA: Grandma,
you knew.
GRANDMOTHER: From the
time you walked into the room. You think
that just because I’m blind I can’t hear the
way a person walks? It’s good to see
you again, Richard.
RICHARD: It’s
good to see you too, Grandma.
NARRATOR: Barbara
and I were married the summer after we finished college and a year tater God blessed
our home with a little bundle of joy we
named Sarah. It wasn’t until after she
was born that I began to understand
just how wonderful Grandma Webslow’s memory was. It
seemed as if God had giver her an extraordinary mind to compensate
for the loss of sight and movement.
GRANDMOTHER: Do you
have those birthday cards ready, Charles?
GRANDFATHER: Right
here, Maria.
GRANDMOTHER: Fine and
dandy. Now let’s see. Barbara and Richard’s little Sarah will be one year old next week.
GRANDFATHER: Has it
been a year already?
GRANDMOTHER: A year
this coming Friday. Don’t forget to include
a dollar bill.
GRANDFATHER: No
mother. I won’t forget. Picked up a fresh supply of crisp ones from the bank just this morning.
GRANDMOTHER: Jonathan
is forty-two next month but we’ll need to send his card today
as well. It often takes that long for
our letters to reach Taiwan. And don’t’ forget the check.
GRANDFATHER: No,
mother. I won’t forget.
GRANDMOTHER: Harold
and Sharon’s
wedding will be here in two weeks. I
don’t have any wedding cards on hand. You’ll have to pick one up down at the
drugstore next time you go to town.
Don’t forget now.
GRANDFATHER: No,
mother. I won’t forget. (PAUSES WHILE A LONG- SUFFERING
AND LOVING SMILE SPREADS OVER HIS FACE.) I won’t forget. You won’t let me forget.
SCENE TWO
(GRANDMOTHER LEAVES HER STOOL AND EXITS. HAROLD AND SHARON ENTER AND SIT ON STOOLS TO
THE RIGHT OF GRANDFATHER. THE CHOIR
STANDS IN PREPARATION FOR THE FUNERAL CELEBRATION.)
NARRATOR: There
were seven children in the Webslow family.
Fifty-five grandchildren counting spouses, and twenty-seven
great- grandchildren,
with more on the way. Still Grandma
never missed a
birthday or anniversary. Grandfather’s
handwritten note and the inevitable
dollar bill were what we saw, but Grandma’s memory was
what we remembered. Barbara and I had
just celebrated our fifth anniversary when her father
called to tell us that Grandma Webslow
had passed away in her sleep. Family
members gathered from
all over the world fore her funeral.
Jonathan and his family from
Taiwan
where they were serving as missionaries, and various cousins from the
colleges they were attending. Barbara
and I drove over from our
first pastorate in Minnesota. It was a solemn time, and yet a happy one. We had all witnessed Grandma’s faith, and
gazing at her shiveled body lying in the casket we couldn’t help
but realize that she was better off where she was now. And so,
the entire family held a service of celebration.
TWO CHOIR NUMBERS ON AN EASTER THEME
JONATHAN: Let
me begin today by thanking each of you for coming. We’ve gathered here today, not to
celebrate death. We have come instead to
celebrate life. The average person
looking at the life our mother and
grandmother lived might ask what there is to celebrate. They would
see her twenty-plus years of confinement to a bed of pain. They
would see the twisted limbs and blinded eyes and they would look no further.
They would feel sorry for her, but Grandmother never felt sorry for
herself. Long ago she recognized the
truth of Scripture
that “death is swallowed up in victory.”
Here was a victorious
life because it was lived by faith in Jesus Christ.
CHOIR NUMBERS ON AN EASTER THEME
JONATHAN: “Thanks
be to God, who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus
Christ.” Most of us will never face
physical suffering in the degree
which Grandmother Webslow experienced it.
This is true, and
for that we praise God. But on the other
hand, most of us will never
enjoy life to the extent that Grandma enjoyed it. She had a love
for people and a love for God which would not allow her to indulge in self-pity. To her, each day she lived was a day to celebrate
life, a day to rejoice in her victory through Christ. Those of
us who knew Grandma best haven been indelibly marked by the strength of
her faith. Her prayers have sustained us
through years of
ministry. Her love has encouraged us to
love others. Her suffering
has enabled us to “run with patience the race which is set before
us.” Now her death reminds us that the
greatest treasures we
possess are the “treasures in heaven.”
With such a treasure as Mother
Webslow in the presence of God it gives new meaning to that verse, “for where your
treasure is, there will your heart be also. Today our hearts are drawn much closer to
heaven, for that is where
our treasure now abides.
CHOIR NUMBER ON AN EASTER THEME
NARRATOR: It
was a wonderful service, just the kind of praise to God service that
Grandma would have enjoyed. At the end
Jonathan gave an invitation
and two of Grandma’s neighbors whom she had prayed for all her life stepped out to
talk to him about receiving the Christ who
Grandma loved so much. Afterward we all
gathered back at the home place, reminiscing about
Grandma and eating Grandfather’s ice cream bars.
SCENE THREE
(HAROLD, SHARON, JONATHAN, GRANDFATHER, BARBARA AND RICHARD
SIT ON STOOLS IN THAT ORDER. NARRATOR
REMAINS TO THE RIGHT OF THEM.)
BARBARA: Remember
the time Richard and I tried to convince Grandma I had a new boyfriend?
RICHARD: She
had recognized me from the way I walked when I came in the front door.
SHARON: I started receiving birthday
cards from her even before Harold and I were married. I still don’t know how she found out when my birthday
was. Harold couldn’t have told her, he
still doesn’t remember.
HAROLD: Hey,
I remember our anniversary, don’t I?
SHARON: Sure, that’s why we got
married on the Fourth of July.
GRANDFATHER: Did
everyone get an ice cream bar?
BARBARA: It’s
their own fault if they didn’t, Grandpa.
I don’t know where you
get your ice cream bars, but they always taste so much better here
than the ones we buy back home.
JONATHAN: You
know. I’ve always wondered why God has
called so many from this family into His
service. I really think it was because
of mother’s
prayers. Most of you won’t even be able
to identify with this
because you new brides don’t know what it is to iron clothes. But
Mother used to spend all day Monday washing and ironing for the
family. And while she ironed each
article of clothing she would pray that we kids would live
for God while we were wearing
that garment.
RICHARD: You’re
right. Kind of hard to do that with wash
and wear. But Barbara
and I have often felt the power of her prayer sustaining us in our
ministry.
HAROLD: Remember
how she used to love riddles? What was
that one she always told?
BARBARA: You
mean the one that starts: In pine-tar is/
HAROLD: In
oak none is/
SHARON: In mud eel is/
HAROLD: What
was the last line?
GRANDFATHER: I
snake one is.
HAROLD: That’s
is. But what was the answer? I never could figure it out and she
wouldn’t tell me. She’s just laugh and
say to go look it up in
a dictionary.
RICHARD: It’s
the letter “e”.
HAROLD: The
letter “e”?
RICHARD: Sure. “E” is in pine-tar, it’s not in oak, it is in
eel and there is one in
snake.
SHARON: Grandma told you that
Harold. But you never remembered so she could tell you the same riddle every time we came to
visit.
HAROLD: I
suppose so. My memory never did measure
up to hers.
JONATHAN: There’s
not a one of us whose memory did, Harold.
But now father has a story he wants to tell
us. Let’s all find a place to sit down.
NARRATOR: The
large living room, which had been humming with a dozen different
conversations, grew quiet. Grandpa
Webslow stood in the
kitchen door, wiping his hands on the
white apron he had tied over
his black suit before starting to distribute ice cream bars to all the
cousins. It seems as if he looked every
one of us straight in the eye,
and then he began his story.
GRANDFATHER: I
couldn’t sleep last night for missing Grandma.
I woke up in the middle of the night and she wasn’t
there. I was really feeling bad.
NARRATOR: It
had been hard to hear Grandpa when he first began to speak, but once into the story his voice grew
louder.
GRANDFATHER: I woke
up and she wasn’t there. Then it was as
if God began to speak to me. We had a little conversation, just God and
me. God said,
“Charles, do you remember how her legs hurt so bad toward the last
that you had to move them almost constantly so she could bear
the pain?
JONATHAN: (SOFTLY) We remember, Dad.
GRANDFATHER: And I
said, “Yes, God. I remember.” Then God said, “Do you know what she is doing now? Running and skipping and jumping.”
NARRATOR: Grampa
stopped to clear his throat and we thought that maybe the dream was over.
Jonathan even got up to help his Dad find a seat, but Grandpa
waved him back.
GRANDFATHER: God
said to me, “Charles, do you remember how her arms were withered
and crossed so that she couldn’t even lift them to her face to eat?”
NARRATOR: Grandpa
paused again, and I thought of the first time Barbara had brought me to the home place. The way Grandpa described her was the
only way I had ever known Grandma.
GRANDFATHER: I
said, “Yes, God, I remember.” And God
told me, “Now she’s lifting them high and praising her
Savior.”
BARBARA: (SOFTLY
THROUGH TEARS) Thank you, Jesus.
GRANDFATHER: God
said, “Do you remember how she lost part of her light, and then
all of her light and has been blind these several years? Now she
is looking into the face of her blessed Savior.”
NARRATOR: Many
of us were crying by that time, unashamedly wiping tears from our eyes. Grandpa was crying too, but he still wasn’t finished.
GRANDFATHER: Again
He said to me, “Charles, do you remember how she would desire
food and it wouldn’t agree wit her?” And
I said, “Yes.” God
said, “Well, do you know what she is doing?
She’s eating the bread
of life up here. She’s feasting at my
own banquet table.”
NARRATOR: Then
Grandfather stopped to wipe away the tears that were flowing from his eyes and Jonathan wrapped a strong arm around
his shoulders. Barbara grabbed my hand and squeezed it until
it hurt. It was real quiet for
awhile, and then Grandpa continued.
GRANDFATHER: Then
God said, “Do you remember how her heart got weaker and weaker
and finally just stopped altogether?”
JONATHAN: We
remember, Dad.
GRANDFATHER: And
God said, “She has a new heart now. She
has a new heart now.”
CHOIR NUMBER ON A RESURRECTION THEME.
NARRATOR: Even
now when I think of Grandma Webslow, I don’t see the blind, crippled,
bed-ridden body we knew so well. Instead
I see Grandpa’s vision of her: legs running and jumping, arms raised in praise
to God, eyes beholding the face of the Savior, a mouth feasting on the bread of
life and above all a new heart. But
there was one thing Grandma didn’t need new—her mind. I’m convinced that she still remembers her
family, and is concerned that they do their best for God. I’m sure that she reaches down from heaven
and gives Grandpa a nudge when it’s time to send out birthday cards, because
they’re still coming.
CLOSING CHOIR NUMBER ON AN EASTER THEME.
The End
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