29.12.18

Serious Mary

As soon as we finish one Christmas program, my children are asking me what we're going to do next year and who they're going to be.  No pressure or anything.  Ellie has been asking the past couple of years to be Mary.  I guess she felt like she had mastered her role as an angel.  She was really excited when I told her she would be Mary this year.  Can't you tell?

Y'all.  I can't even!  I told them at rehearsal that they could sit beside each other.  Technically, they are.  I just meant they could sit closer together.  But I also didn't want to embarrass them.  I guess they're just making sure they have plenty of room for the baby Jesus.  But can Mary even be more serious?! 

Here they are before we even got started, before anyone was in the sanctuary really.  I asked them to look at me and smile.  Again, serious Mary.

My friend Kayla took all of these pictures for me since I was directing the program and leading the choir.  This was the first year in several years that Carsyn, CG and Ellie weren't all three angels.  I told Carsyn that she was the lead angel this year, and she needed to help the new angels know what to do.  She did such a great job.  And, thankfully, she got Ellie to smile, too!

See, I told you she was excited to be Mary.  I guess she was just concentrating on taking care of baby Jesus.

From where I was leading the choir, I kept cutting my eyes over to Ellie to see if I could get her to look at me, but she never did.  At one point, I saw her ever so slightly give the stink eye.  You wouldn't have even noticed it if you didn't know Ellie.  But I saw it alright. I also remembered her big sister was sitting on the front row so it's likely they were both giving stink eyes.

Hannah Kate and Mason both had small parts in the program this year, too.

And, it never fails that Ellie reminds me this time every year of her very first Christmas program.  She was baby Jesus.  And I totally forgot to take the red bow out of her hair.  I didn't even realize it until I saw the pictures afterwards.  If you look carefully, you can see it.  (And can we just stop a minute and notice how little Abbie (Mary), Mason (the shepherd to the left of Abbie) and Hannah Kate (the angel kneeling on the floor) are?!?)

I almost didn't do it this year.  But I'm so glad I did.  We spent a lot of time in Sunday school talking about the manger this year.  A couple of weeks ago, I asked them how baby Jesus was like all other babies.  They gave me all the right answers - He cried, slept, pooped, needed Mary to change his diaper, couldn't walk yet, needed someone to feed Him.  And then I asked them how baby Jesus was different from all other babies.  I wasn't sure what answer, if any, I would get.  They are 1st-3rd graders so they're still learning.  But they were quick to say that Jesus was God's Son.  I affirmed their answer, and we were talking a bit as we were getting ready to play a game.  

I was again talking to them about baby Jesus and the names the Bible gives to Him - Wonderful Counselor, Almighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace, Emmanuel.  And then I said, not thinking too much of it, that baby Jesus laying in the manger was God, that He was God with skin on.  That was the first time all morning that you could literally hear a pin drop (they're an excitable bunch).  They all - all of them - stopped and looked at me, eyes wide big.  I stopped, too.  Because may I NEVER forget that Jesus in the manger was, indeed, God with skin on.  Yes, we should all be in awe!

(And, just so I won't forget, this then took us into a conversation about God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, at which point I began talking to them about the Trinity.  1st-3rd graders.  Yes, I did.  And, if there's a need in your church, or if you ever have the opportunity to teach the Bible to young children, you should totally do it!  It will totally bless your socks off!)

Little baby on the hay,

soon there'll be another day

when nails shall pierce Your hands and feet

as You provide our sin's defeat.

Risen Jesus on the throne,

we lift our praise to You along -

for You're the gift that we receive

the moment that our hearts believe.

~Roy Lessin