This is a rerun of what will probably be posted annually. It is a wonderful memory from several years ago, that will remain in my mind forever. There’s nothing like a Christmas pageant with children that seems to ignite all kinds of issues. For me it was a cast of ten boys and 2 angelic little girls.

I believe the picture says it all.  These young shepherds show how antsy little boys get when they have to wait.  The shepherds from the original nativity story, were young boys who were tending sheep in their fields. For many years, they would hear the promise that God had made to their ancestors of a Messiah who would come to save them. Can you imagine waiting for centuries for this promise to be fulfilled? Many of them had undoubtedly given up on that promise ever coming to fruition, but it made for good campfire conversation. This is not the best time to get into character development or acting skills, because each of those darling children couldn’t wait for it to be Christmas. It was their main focus. I wrote a script on that premise. The restless shepherds would discuss waiting for the Messiah – again. One of them may have given up hope, while another recited Old Testament prophecies telling of the impending event. Most of them were just bored and tired from watching their sheep at night. The main theme of the pageant was “patience.”

The script called for a couple of sheep too. I named them Bob and Joe. The significance of sheep referred to the unblemished Lamb of God, His only Son, as the final sacrifice given to God. Their angel voices would herald the good news – even though there were only two in this story, they had nice loud voices which carried throughout the hills and valleys. Some of the feathers from their wings were left behind though.

To keep the boisterous little boys quiet, I tried to remind them that shepherds would try not to disturb the sheep with their uproarious behavior. That lasted for about two minutes. Kids coming out of a full day of classes and going into another learning situation isn’t always going to work. The two angels stood by quietly, waiting for their time on stage. One worried if she’d be able to say the word – Alleluia – without getting her tongue tied. The other was more concerned with keeping her halo in place.  The imaginary sheep finally fell asleep, except for Bob and Joe – the rowdy ones.

In order to connect this to an exciting upcoming event, we talked about a super-hero coming to wipe out the bad guys. Suddenly those little boys settled down and ears perked up. Each rehearsal became more interesting.  Real life was breathing excitement into the scenario. Soon it became apparent that the kids were digesting this familiar story as they had never done before. We talked about Jesus’ cousin, John, the baptizer, who was born shortly before Jesus. One boy said, “He’s the one who got his head cut off,” which completely turned everything 180 degrees. I was able to wrap it up by saying that Jesus came to take away the sins of the world – even the guy that chopped off John’s head. You had to be there.

I have a real problem being patient, especially when answers are left unknown, and time runs out before we can achieve any patience at all. When we wait for something for such a long time, we often begin to doubt if it will ever happen. Our faith weakens – we become impatient. But when we are waiting for the King of Creation to be born as one of us – to live as our brother – to experience all that we do – it is definitely worth the wait. So, after six Mondays of rehearsals, ramping up the extending storytelling, my cast of shepherds, sheep and angels pulled off an amazing pageant. Not only did they learn some side stories about the birth of Jesus, but I did too. It had a lot to do with my patience.

ALLELUIA!