Day 9: A Little Child Shall Lead Us

Yesterday in church we had our children's Christmas pageant. There was much stress and worrying on my part about whether or not we could pull this off. I had a wonderful young woman working with the kids on the music and she had chosen an ambitious program. The script involved many kids and lots of movement. We were only able to practice in the main sanctuary once and even then, it wasn't set up exactly like it would be and the main character wasn't there are that rehearsal. At one minute before the service started on Sunday, I had tears in my eyes and wondered why in the world we do this to ourselves year after year. And then the play started and I remembered why. The kids are awesome. They work hard, they love performing, they revel in wearing the costumes. The story this year involved a bully who was giving the shepherds a hard time. She didn't want her little brother mixing with "those types." And of course, we know that God made sure the shepherds were in the middle of everything, the ones highly chosen to receive the Good News of a Great Joy before anyone else. The microphones worked, they were in the right place at the right time, they sang like cherubs and all hearts were gladdened. It was a wonderful morning and left me wondering why I stress so much!
One of the awesome things about our church is all of the different nationalities that are represented. Just to give you a taste here is a list of the nations from where our cast come:
The shepherds were from France, Kenya, China and The United Kingdom. The bully was half Korean, half Danish. The angels were from Uganda and Pakistan. The innkeeper was Pakstani and his wife was from the Philippines. Joseph was from Uganda and Mary was half Ugandan and half American. The donkey was half Swedish, half American. And those are just the kids who made us the speaking parts!
We fully embody the old Sunday School tune, "Jesus loves the little children. All the children of the world. Red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in his sight. Jesus loves the little children of the world."
Children's pageants help us to understand why God chose a child to lead us. Our children were worthy leaders in our worship service yesterday. Is there childlike wonder in your advent journey? Do something childlike if you need to be reminded of a child's perspective.

A side note: Today would've been my brother's 50th birthday. We honor him today.