|
|
|
The Herdman children were absolutely the meanest children in the world. At least that’s how it looked through the eyes of the child who tells the story in Barbara Robinson’s book, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever written 30 years ago. The six Herdman children, Imogene, Ralph, Ollie, Leroy, Claude, and Gladys had never been to church before, but after finding out that refreshments were served--maybe a cookie jar in the church lady’s office--they began showing up—and right in time for the Christmas Pageant. They managed through their own devious ways to land the leading roles in the play even though they had never heard the story before. Their questions were outrageous: Who were the shepherds? Where did they come from? What was an inn? What’s a manger? What does it mean, wise men? What is frankincense and myrhh? How come Herod didn’t have a part in the play? At the end of the first rehearsal, the director of the pageant was explaining to her husband, how it had gone: "Just suppose you had never heard the Christmas story, and didn’t know anything about it, and then somebody told it to you, what would you think?" Think about that question. Suppose you had never heard this story. What would you think when you did hear it? Mary and Joseph traveling on foot 80 miles with her nine months pregnant. Giving birth to Jesus in a barn. Angels appearing to shepherds on a hillside with an outlandish message. Wisemen traveling for months following a star, a star? looking for the new king. You and I probably cannot even remember when we first heard this story. We may know more about the birth of Jesus than we do our own birth! But the Herdman children hadn’t heard the story before and so they didn’t know not to question it. Imogene, who played Mary, didn’t know she was supposed to be all quiet and dreamy. The way Imogene did it was the way she did everything: loud and bossy. "Get away from the baby!" she yelled at Ralph who was Joseph. And she made the Wise Men keep their distance, and they speculated, "what if we went back and told Herod where to find the baby?" "He would murder Jesus" Ralph hollered. "He would not!" Shouted Imogene, with fire in her eye. But it is something to think about. What if Herod had managed to find Jesus and kill him. No Jesus ever. What a different world we would have. Yesterday when I was organizing the crèche figurines for the children to carry, I discovered that only 13 of the 14 had been unwrapped. I counted twice. Each time I came up with thirteen. There were three sheep. Didn’t we used to have four sheep? It seemed like we always had lots of sheep. Maybe one of the shepherds was missing. Did we only have one shepherd for all those sheep? I could easily see that all three kings were present—they’re easy to spot with their crowns and gifts. Mary was visibly present—the only woman in the group. Except maybe for the angel who may or may not have been female. Yea, there was Joseph. I counted again. Still 13. We had fourteen last year—we ALWAYS have fourteen spots for children to sign up to carry the figurines. I’m embarrassed to tell you that it took me all this time before I realized that the missing figurine was baby Jesus. And then I began to panic. Where was Jesus? I looked all over Judi’s and my office—you could lose a small car in there—but couldn’t find Jesus. I went to David and Diana’s office thinking that maybe for some reason they were going to use the figurine in the later services and had borrowed him for a while. But no, they had no idea where he was. Then I thought, "someone’s taken him!" Maybe a child was so enamored with him last year that they took him home. But wouldn’t I have noticed when we put the set away? I wasn’t really worried, because I had an "emergency back-up Jesus" from another set. It didn’t exactly go with the other figurines, but it would be better than an empty manger. And then I found the box where the figurines had been packed. Baby Jesus just hadn’t been unpacked yet. He was still nestled at the bottom of the box in the wrapping paper. This all really happened yesterday afternoon. But I couldn’t have made up a better illustration of how we sometimes celebrate Christmas. We don’t need Herod to do away with Jesus. We can do that well enough ourselves as we get busy with all the trappings and trimmings and leave Jesus nestled in the box waiting to be unwrapped. Sometimes in my life, I know something is missing. But I just can’t put my finger on it—like I kept counting to 13 yesterday. It’s Jesus. Jesus is missing. Oh yeah. Jesus. Or even when I know it’s a closer relationship with Jesus that is missing in my life, I blame others just like I did when I thought someone else had taken the figurine. If I didn’t have so much work to do, I would have more time to spend in prayer and Bible study. It’s not my fault that I don’t have more room for Jesus. Other people are clamoring for my time and attention—it’s certainly not my fault that I can’t find Jesus in my life. And there’s always the "emergency back-up Jesus" when you can’t find the real Jesus who was the Prince of Peace and commanded that we love our enemies; but there’s always the emergency back-up Jesus who lets us decide how we want to treat our enemies—who marches to our drummer. Yes, an emergency back-up Jesus would do in a pinch—maybe I’ll be able to get by without that other real Jesus. But I wasn’t satisfied with that other Jesus and kept looking. And then, just in time, there he was. The real Jesus. Still wrapped up in last year’s packing. Waiting patiently to be discovered once again. The analogy is too obvious to be any good, but I can’t help it—it’s what happened. So I ask you the question: What do you do with Jesus every year after Christmas? Do you wrap him up and carefully put him away? Or do you keep him present in your life. The Herdman children had never heard the story of the birth of Jesus, but once they heard it, their lives were changed forever. How about you? Will you wrap Jesus up with the other Christmas trappings and put him away for another year? Or will you allow Jesus to stay in your life on a daily basis now that you have found him? The angel said to them, "Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord". Thanks be to God. |
The St. John Web Site needs your input! Click here to leave feedback Copyright © 1998-2004 Jon S. Dawson. Last modified: February 01, 2009
|
12.24.02 - Rose's Christmas Eve Meditation
