A very talented, committed and fearless group of people at my church are preparing our children and youth for one of the biggest productions known to man - the Christmas Program. These words can strike fear in the heart of many of Sunday School teacher. It's not that we don't love to prepare for this worship time. Nothing is better than hearing the words of the ancient story of the birth of Christ being recited by children. It is so sweet seeing the little ones doing their verses and actions. Beautiful. You can almost imagine God smiling as they raise their voices to heaven as they sing "Away in a Manger".
The fear comes in when you understand that anything can happen in that Christmas Progam hour. Dresses are lifted over preschool childrens' heads as they grow impatient for the last "Amen". Stage fright comes with the territory as children confident in their parts at the last rehearsal look out over a congregation of big people they don't know and their parts just disappear. They are left to stare blankly at the video cameras rolling.
One of my favorite movies is "Simon Birch". It's a bittersweet tale of how a 12 year old boy comes to faith. One of the best scenes of the movie is the Christmas program. Everything that could go wrong does. Jesus, played by Simon Birch because he's the only one small enough to fit in the manger, pulls Mary into the manger in a fever of adolescent hormones, the shepherds and the Three Kings get into a fight and knock off the head of one of the turtle doves and the angel of the Lord vomits on the first three rows of spectators. The first full contact Christmas program.
I've been helping with Christmas programs for about 17 years and have devised some rules that I stick to when directing the programs.
Rule #1: Never try to suspend any child or youth from the ceiling with a pulley system or rope. No good can come from this!
Rule #2: Avoid real barnyard animals. Not only can they be unpredictable when encountering a crowd, but the carpet cleaning fees will be coming out of your checkbook.
Rule #3: Make it fun for the kids. The practices can be tedious as we block the program and work on speaking parts. You get much more help from the kids if you bring a little silliness into the process.
Rule #4: Pray, pray, pray. It's really God's story to tell. We are privileged to be picked by Him to tell it!
An old movie, "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever", tells the story of a Christmas Program that was taken over by a motley group of children that came for self-benefitting reasons. They took over every part in the nativity. On the day of the program, the Magi brought the gift of a ham for Baby Jesus. The Angel proclaimed the arrival of the newborn king, "Hey, Unto You a Child is Born. Get going." In the end, we see Mary, played be the meanest, cigar-smoking girl of the family, truly being touched by the miracle of the Messiah and crying at the end of the program. God had spoken to her heart as she pondered the Christmas story.
I pray that God would touch your heart as you watch the little children and youth tell of the story of that long ago night when God was born as a man, a Savior. Keep the kleenex handy and get going -- go to the manger to praise the King!
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