Yesterday was pageant day at our church. How can a small Sunday School fill the church with so much excitement? Bouncing sheepy children everywhere.
This year, the kids put together their own script – well, more or less. There was a little editorial work to be added, and a few lines of narrations needed here and there. The nativity story unfolded from the perspective of the animals. And while I’m sure I’ve promised myself in the past that I would never play into that kind of thing, it all worked rather well. We had a real Mary and Christ child drawn from one of the Sunday School families, though sadly the big sister cow had to stay home in bed with a cold. We had bigger cows, too, and lots of sheep and a donkey. Doves and a camel. An incongruous hedgehog. (Yes, I was up late at night concocting a costume with velour and toothpicks…) Each of the talking animals gave their opinion on the events of that Bethlehem night, and we concluded with a sweet version of The Friendly Beasts thanks to the troubadouring Spouse.
Last December, I prepared a script and handed out roles. We took a more conventional tack and cast Mary as one of the tallest girl, a reluctant Joseph to match, the small ones as sheep. This year, they all wanted to do things a little differently.
Last year’s Mary cast herself as a sheep this year because she likes to herd the little lambs. Joseph wanted to be a silent donkey. The two wise women both chose to be doves this time around, each adorned with long white wings, one set of which was worn home by a certain daughter of mine and then all through the afternoon as she lay curled up on the sofa, reading. I wondered if she’d want to wear them to bed.
This is only the second year in living memory that our Sunday School has done a nativity play. It felt exciting and new, but there was also a lovely confidence among the kids as they planned and prepared their telling of the story. They worked together, knowing each other well enough to find their own place in the story. That was the beautiful bit about the whole process. Each child found their place. Constant, lullabying doves. Rowdy lambs. The silent donkey. Even the hedgehog. Who, by the way, lived beneath the manger and was angry at first at all the commotion and all the strangers crowding around her little home with their heavy feet. But then, she listened to the angels’ song and to the stories that the animals told and she, too, decided that she was glad that the holy family had chosen that dark stable, that God had chosen that humble moment to come into the world.
“God became man
and dwelt among us.
In silence we ponder,
in awe we confess
this amazing truth.
Conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,
the eternal Son of God
humbled himself
to be one with us.
To Israel and to the world
came God in Christ.”
Living Faith 3.2.1
